Categories: OLD Media Moves

Former MySpace CEO seeks stake in Dow Jones

The former CEO of social-networking site MySpace says he will seek a non-controlling stake in Dow Jones & Co., the parent company of The Wall StreetÂ Journal,Â Barron’s and Marketwatch,Â through a $60-per-share “Dutch auction,” reports Stephanie Kang of The Journal.

Kang wrote, “An investment group led by Internet entrepreneur Brad Greenspan sent a letter to the board of directors at Dow Jones, stating that it would buy about 25% of Dow Jones common stock at $60 per share. In the so-called Dutch auction, Dow Jones shareholders could choose to tender their shares at $60 per share. The investment group would buy shares at this price until it had acquired about $1.25 billion, about a 25% stake in Dow Jones.

“Mr. Greenspan called the proposal an ‘attractive alternative to the current options.’

“‘I have successfully built a number of Internet franchises, including MySpace, and in studying the assets of Dow Jones, I believe the potential exists to significantly enhance the company’s presence and revenue streams in electronic media.'”

Read more here. A release from Greenspan can be found here. He’s also put up a Web site for his Journal proposal.

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.