GE, Pearson to Team Up for Dow Jones?
With the Bancroft Family continuing to seek alternatives to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, rumors have been stirring about involvement from General Electric and Pearson PLC.
FT Mergermarket reports that GE will decide within days whether to team with Pearson on a deal that would include the Bancroft Family as minority investors, allowing them to remain involved with the family-owned business. The same article indicates that Barry Diller's InterActive Corp and Hearst have also been approached by Pearson as potential partners.
Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that under a GE-Pearson deal, Dow Jones, the FT and CNBC would be combined into a privately held joint venture with Pearson and GE owning equal shares, again with a minority stake for the Bancrofts. The Journal article points out some of the difficulties of such a three-way venture, including how to generate cash to pay out Dow Jones shareholders.
Regardless of the complexity, it appears clear that Pearson is eager to make a deal happen and that the Bancrofts are eager to find an alternative to Murdoch and would likely leave cash on the table if they could find a more palatable partner.
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