Rupert Murdoch, Victorious

It’s

finally happened: News Corp has enough Bancroft votes that it’s going to

go ahead with its acquisition of Dow Jones. By the fourth quarter, Rupert

Murdoch will be the new proprietor of the Wall Street Journal.

The key capitulation came from Denver trusts controlling 9.1% of Dow Jones

votes. They’d been holding out for a premium over the non-voting shares, but

when it became obvious that neither Dow Jones nor News Corp was willing to play

that game, they voted at least some of their shares in favor. Now the deal is

done.

I’m actually mildly disappointed that the Denver trusts didn’t stick to their

guns, and call Murdoch’s

bluff. But I’m not unhappy that Rupert is going to own the WSJ. I think

he’ll invest in it and make it a better paper than it is today, and I look forward

to its evolution in the years to come.

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