CNBC reporting News Corp. offers $60/share for Dow Jones

CNBC’s David Faber is reporting that News Corp., which owns Fox News, the New York Post and other media outlets, has made an unsolicited $60-per-share offer for Dow Jones & Co., the parent of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch.

According to a brief on the CNBC site, “The Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones with ownership of roughly 62% of voting stock, has hired advisors to help weigh the offer. It remains unclear what the family will choose to do, Faber said.”

See here. A transcript of what Faber said can be read here. Dow Jones stock was traded at about $36.30 in Tuesday trading. It rose to $57 before trading was halted. This chart shows that Dow Jones shares have not traded above $60 in the past five years.

Reuters is reporting that a letter was sent to the Dow Jones board of directors two weeks ago, and the offer is cash.

Dow Jones issued a statement shortly before noon confirming the offer. Its statement said, “Dow Jones & Company (NYSE: DJ) today confirmed that its Board of Directors has received an unsolicited proposal from News Corporation to acquire all of the outstanding shares of Dow Jones common stock and Class B common stock for $60.00 per share in cash, or in a combination of cash and News Corporation securities.

“The Board of Directors and members and trustees of the Bancroft family, who hold shares representing a majority of the Company’s voting power, are evaluating the proposal. There can be no assurance that this evaluation will lead to any transaction.”

Just curious, but the board had to know this was going to leak out somehow. Why not give the story to the Journal instead of letting a competitor break it?

The only piece of information in this hastily written Journal article that new is that the New York Times, Washington Post and Bloomberg may also bid for Dow Jones.