Categories: OLD Media Moves

Buffett: Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones is about ego

Warren Buffett, a large shareholder in the Washington Post Co., said in a press conference Sunday that News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, goes beyond economics, according to a Bloomberg story.

Jesse Westbrook wrote, “Rupert would even acknowledge that some part of his interest in the Wall Street Journal goes beyond economics,’ Buffett said today at a press conference in Omaha, Nebraska.

“Dow Jones said May 1 that Bancroft family members who control more than 50 percent of the company’s voting shares will reject a $5 billion takeover bid by News Corp. Dow shareholders said the $60-a-share bid, 65 percent above the previous day’s close, could spark an auction for the 125-year-old newspaper publisher.

“There are a lot of people in the world who would pay a lot more for Dow Jones than for a brick company that earns the same,’ said Buffett, who sits on the board of Washington Post Co. Berkshire was the largest investor in the Washington Post as of Dec. 31, with an 18 percent stake, and also owns the Buffalo News.

“Sports teams, airlines, movie studios and ‘naturally’ newspapers have a ‘B’ value, which translates into ‘ego,’ Buffett said. ‘The B factor at Dow Jones is huge. It’s probably only second to the New York Times in world.”’

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.