finally happened: News Corp has enough Bancroft votes that it’s going to
go ahead with its acquisition of Dow Jones. By the fourth quarter, Rupert
Murdoch will be the new proprietor of the Wall Street Journal.
The key capitulation came from Denver trusts controlling 9.1% of Dow Jones
votes. They’d been holding out for a premium over the non-voting shares, but
when it became obvious that neither Dow Jones nor News Corp was willing to play
that game, they voted at least some of their shares in favor. Now the deal is
done.
I’m actually mildly disappointed that the Denver trusts didn’t stick to their
guns, and call Murdoch’s
bluff. But I’m not unhappy that Rupert is going to own the WSJ. I think
he’ll invest in it and make it a better paper than it is today, and I look forward
to its evolution in the years to come.