Dow Jones agrees to News Corp. deal

Posted by Erina Lin on August 1, 2007 at 10:54 PM

In a buyout that will end a century of the Bancroft family's ownership, Rupert Murdoch has sealed a deal to buy Dow Jones & Co. for $5.6 billion.

The companies said early Wednesday morning that a definitive merger agreement has been signed after the deal won sufficient support to pass from Bancroft family, which has controlled the newspaper publisher for decades.

The deal will empower Murdoch’s already giant world media and entertainment empire News Corp., which owns the Fox broadcast network, Fox News Channel, the Twentieth Century Fox movie and TV studio, MySpace, and many newspapers and satellite TV broadcasters.

Dow Jones and News Corp. announced in a statement that the Bancroft family representing 37 percent of the company’s shareholder vote have agreed the deal. With another 29 percent of the vote by public shareholders, the deal is sure to pass. It is also said that a member of the Bancroft family or another mutually acceptable person would be appointed to News Corp.'s board of directors.