Burkle nearly ready to make Dow Jones bid

Billionaire Ron Burkle is close to making his union-sponsored bid for Dow Jones & Co., competing against the $5 billion bid made by News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch for the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Fortune’s Tim Arango reports.

Arango wrote, “The billionaire supermarket mogul Ron Burkle is still working with Dow Jones’ union and could go public this week with a longshot offer for Dow Jones, according to a source in the Burkle camp.

“This person said Burkle, who was first mentioned two weeks ago as a potential suitor for Dow Jones, has been trying to enlist the beleaguered Internet giant Yahoo! as a partner for a bid.

“Burkle, the Los Angeles-based mogul, sits on Yahoo!’s board of directors, and as a member of that company’s compensation committee recently came under scrutiny from shareholder activist types for approving a package that paid over $70 million to Yahoo! CEO Terry Semel last year. Given the Internet company’s struggles competing on search with Google, an entry in to the slow-growth newspaper industry appears unlikely. That hasn’t stopped Burkle from trying to make the case to Yahoo!, according to a source, who said that Burkle is also considering various other partnerships in conjunction with Dow Jones’ union.”

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