Auletta: Bancrofts would consider offers from Grahams, Bloomberg

New Yorker media columnist Ken Auletta said in an interview on National Public Radio’s “Marketplace” that the Bancroft family told him several years ago when he was writing an article about them that they would consider offers for Dow Jones & Co. from the Grahams, who control The Washington Post Co., and from Bloomberg LP, which has a wire service,

The Bancrofts own a controlling stake in Dow Jones, the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch made a $5 billion offer for Dow Jones on Tuesday.

Auletta stated, “When I was doing my piece two years ago, the family made it clear they were not sellers. But if the Graham family that owns The Washington Post were to make a bid, they would be interested in that. And the second choice at the time was Bloomberg. They thought they were two people that respected good journalism.

“The Graham family tends to be low-ballers. So that offer never materialized, at least one that would be attractive to the family.

“As this goes on, there might be other bidders. But it’s hard to imagine that other bidders would bid $60 a share, which is a very rich price.

“And what happens then is the Bancroft family, which only owns a quarter of the stock, nevertheless owns two-thirds of the voting stock. So the family, if they stay united, can reject this offer.”

Read more here. Various media reports in the past two days have said that Bloomberg was not interested, while Post spokesmen declined comment.