Dow Jones parent to buy Oil Price Information Services for $1.15B

News Corp., the parent of Dow Jones & Co., has agreed to buy IHS Markit Ltd. ’s Oil Price Information Service, an energy and renewables information-services company, and related assets for $1.15 billion in cash, the latest addition to the company’s growing portfolio of publications catering to investors, reports Dave Sebastian of The Wall Street Journal.

Sebastian reports, “The businesses being acquired also include Coal, Metals and Mining, which provides information about coal and other raw materials pricing, and PetroChem Wire, a provider of pricing for petrochemicals and plastics, the companies said Monday. S&P Global Inc. in late 2020 agreed to buy IHS Markit for about $44 billion, a landmark deal that would combine two of the largest providers of data to Wall Street.

“S&P Global and IHS Markit in May said they were exploring the sale of the assets following feedback from regulators. They said they expect the deal to close following the combination in the fourth quarter.

“News Corp, which owns The Wall Street Journal, HarperCollins Publishers and news organizations in the U.K. and Australia, among other assets, said the assets will become part of Dow Jones’ professional information business, which includes Dow Jones Risk & Compliance, Dow Jones Newswires and Factiva.”

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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.