News Corp. Completes Dow Jones Acquisition

NEW YORK, December 14: News Corporation has completed its
acquisition of Dow Jones & Co., making The Wall Street Journal part of Rupert
Murdoch’s global media empire.

In August, News Corporation succeeded in its $5.6-billion
takeover bid for Dow Jones when the Bancroft family, holding 37 percent of the
publisher’s voting stock, agreed to the buyout following the board’s approval
in July.

Under the terms of the merger agreement, each share of Dow
Jones common stock was converted into the right to receive either $60.00 in
cash or stock in Ruby Newco LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of News Corp. Each
Class B common unit of Ruby Newco is convertible, after a period of time, into
a share of News Corporation Class A common stock. 



Natalie Bancroft, a member of the family that has owned the Journal for more than 100 years, has been appointed to News
Corp.’s board of directors. 
Meanwhile, according to the New
York Times, the transition to new
management began yesterday, with several senior Dow Jones executives expected
to have vacated their offices by today. The News Corp.-installed management
includes Robert Thomson, the new publisher of Dow Jones & Company and The
Wall Street Journal. He joins Dow Jones
from five years of serving as editor of the News Corp.-owned British paper The
Times.

To bring attention to the change in ownership, News Corp.
has taken out ads in newspapers around the world today. The version in the New
York Times uses the slogan “Free people,
Free markets, Free thinking”. It notes: “Today the greatest brand in financial
journalism joins up with the world’s most restless global media company. The
tradition of editorial excellence of Dow Jones and The Wall Street
Journal fuses with the agitating and
visionary spirit of News Corporation. Together we’ll bring you the issues and
themes that define our time and shape our future. We’re News.”

—By Mansha Daswani