Categories: OLD Media Moves

WSJ winning the battle of breaking M&A stories

Nick Summers of the New York Observer reports Thursday about some data he received from a Wall Street Journal reporter that shows that The Journal continues to break most of the merger & acquisition stories in the business media.

Summers writes, “If accurate, they make a convincing case that despite Mr. Murdoch’s influences, the Journal is still No. 1 on the mergers-and-acquisitions beat. They also show that the paper is annoyed that because of DealBook’s high profile, it needs to make an extra effort to remind people it’s not limping along.

“The staffer’s spreadsheet lists the 50 largest mergers-and-acquisitions deals this year, ranging in size from $2.31 billion to $22.33 billion. They’re tagged by target, acquirer, industry, value, and—most important to media-watchers—who got the scoop. Here’s a pie chart (top right; click to enlarge), and a breakdown by publication:

Bloomberg: five scoops (E.ON US LLC, Sybase Inc, Millipore Corp, Isilon Systems Inc, Nicor Inc)
Financial Times: two scoops (Interactive Data Corp, Del Monte Foods Co)
New York Times: three scoops (CommScope Inc, Continental Airlines Inc, J Crew Group Inc)
Wall Street Journal: 14 scoops (Genzyme Corp, American Life Insurance Co – ALICO, Qwest Communications International Inc, Smith International Inc, Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc (North American Operations), East Resources Inc, Pactiv Corp (Bid No 2), OSI Pharmaceuticals Inc, Alberto-Culver Co, NBTY Inc, Talecris Biotherapeutics Holdings Corp, Burger King Holdings Inc, Baldor Electric Co, 3PAR Inc (Bid No 2), Oil & Gas Assets (Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico)
No scoop: 26 times (Enterprise GP Holdings LP, Bucyrus International Inc, Allegheny Energy Inc, Airgas Inc, McAfee Inc, Oil & Gas assets (Canada, US, Egypt), Tenet Healthcare Corp, NSTAR, Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Southern Copper Corp (20%), Devon Energy Corp (Oil and gas assets in the deepwater Gulf of Mexico, Brazil.), Hewitt Associates Inc, Terra Industries Inc (Bid No 2), Atlas Energy Inc, Mariner Energy Inc, EXCO Resources Inc (70.85%), Kraft Foods Inc (Frozen pizza business in the US and Canada), Abraxis BioScience Inc, King Pharmaceuticals Inc, AmeriCredit Corp, Oil & Gas Assets (The Appalachian natural gas and oil exploration and production business, US), MultiPlan Inc, Dresser Inc, US, ev3 Inc, PNC Global Investment Servicing)