At Monday meeting, Chris Bancroft may try to influence family

Richard Perez-Pena of The New York Times writes Monday that Chris Bancroft, the family member that has been most outspoken against selling Dow Jones & Co. to News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, may try to influence others to vote against the deal at its meeting later in the day.

Perez-Pena wrote, “Mr. Bancroft seems to be the only person who is clearly the dominant player in one of the family’s three branches, while power is more diffuse in the other two. Family members and people close to them say his two siblings mostly eschew company business and defer to his judgment, though his brother, Hugh Bancroft III, is said to be open to selling.

“In addition, Christopher Bancroft has voting power over most of his branch’s stock, as either trustee or owner — 14.5 percent of the total Dow Jones shareholder vote as of January. Only one other family had similar voting power, his cousin, Jane Cox MacElree, at 14.8 percent; no one else had more than 4.2 percent.

“Mr. Bancroft is, like Ms. Hill, also one of three family members who sit on the Dow Jones board and have been involved in talks with the News Corporation.

“Family members sometimes describe him as mercurial and dismissive, and some were piqued in May when he skipped a family gathering, and then wavered on whether to release a family statement agreeing to meet Mr. Murdoch.”

Read more here.