In News Corp’s Q1 earnings call today (we have the earnings report here), CEO Rupert Murdoch said that the company’s recent offer to acquire Dow Jones for $60 a share is a “full and more than fair price…We made the offer at what we believe is a full and more than fair price because the two companies are a perfect fit,” Murdoch said, reports DJN. Murdoch said he would have preferred to negotiate the offer in private, as “that was the manner in which we submitted it,” but it got leaked to CNBC.
Meanwhile, DJ’s stock prices fell more than 5 percent on NYSE today, and part of the drop in the share price may be because of traders interpreting Murdoch’s remarks as his signal that he will not increase his $60-a-share bid, said Benchmark Co. analyst Ed Atorino, reports Reuters. “There’s clearly still interest on the part of Mr. Murdoch…But it sounds like he’s in no hurry,” said Atorino.
From the call: Peter Chernin addressed the upcoming business channel launch, whether News Corp gets DJ or not: “Even if we don’t get Dow Jones, we think there is an opportunity, what I would say is more of business channel as apposed to just a market channel, a channel that covers the full range of business from small business to personality stories. So, what’s going on, on mainstream around the United States as opposed to just covering the market. It will obviously cover the market, but we think we can be much broader.” He said it will launch by the end of this year.