Dow Jones shareholder calls for Bancroft family to sell

by Jacquie Bowser, Brand Republic 31-May-07, 09:15

LONDON - The largest non-family shareholder in Dow Jones & Company has called for the Bancroft family, the largest shareholder, to sell their controlling share to Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation.

Brian Rogers, the chairman and chief investment officer of investment firm T Rowe Price, which holds about 15% of Dow Jones or 4.5m shares, said the family had no plan in place to lift the company's share price to the level offered by News Corp, according to a report in the Financial Times today.

Rogers said: "There might be other buyers more palatable to them. But who's to say Rupert Murdoch is all that bad?

"The offer to purchase Dow Jones at $60 in our view represents a fairly attractive transaction price. I find it hard to believe that the company itself has a plan to get the shares to $60."

Murdoch's takeover offer valued Dow Jones at $5bn (£2.5bn), or $60 a share, which represented a 67% premium.

His bid was formally rejected earlier this month, but Murdoch subsequently stepped up plans to buy the company by offering the Bancroft family seats on the News Corp board, and proposed the creation an independent editorial board for The Wall Street Journal, owned by Dow Jones.

Some members of the family have refused to sell the company to Murdoch at any price, concerned that a News Corp takeover would "crush quality and independence" at the journal.

A spokesman for T Rowe Price said it had not directly appealed to the Bancroft family, which controls 64.2% of the voting shares. The equity firm is one of the largest fund managers in the US with $350bn in assets.

Dow Jones shares closed 2% higher at $52.85 yesterday.