Categories: OLD Media Moves

Regulators probing Dow Jones insider trading

The New York attornety general’s office and the Securities and Exchange Commission are investigating possible illegal insider trading in Dow Jones & Co. stock before it was revealed that the owner of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Marketwatch had received a $5 billion offer from News Corp.

Karen Scannell of the Journal wrote, “A Dow Jones spokesman said the company had received a subpoena from the attorney general and an inquiry from the SEC. ‘We will cooperate fully with the authorities investigating the matter,’ the spokesman said. A News Corp. spokesman said that company too had received a subpoena from the attorney general and an SEC inquiry. ‘We are cooperating fully,’ the spokesman said.

“Eric Corngold, New York state’s executive deputy attorney general for economic justice, declined to comment, as did an SEC spokesman.

“Several investment banks are advising News Corp. and Dow Jones. It isn’t clear if any have been contacted yet by authorities.”

Read more here.

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.