News Corporation and Dow Jones & Company, Inc
6 Pages Posted: 9 Jun 2009
Abstract
Billionaire Rupert Murdoch, CEO of News Corporation, has purchased the Dow Jones & Company, which includes the Wall Street Journal, from the Bancroft family after many family discussions about the sale. At issue is whether Murchoch, known for his involved and hands-on management style, will impose his will on the editorial personnel and policies of the WSJ and risk destroying the very intellectual capital he has just acquired.
Excerpt
UVA-BP-0534
Nov. 13, 2008
NEWS CORPORATION AND DOW JONES & Company, Inc.
In mid-August 2007, billionaire Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive officer of News Corporation (News Corp), sat at his desk in his New York City corporate headquarters, contemplating the challenges before him. In one of his greatest achievements, he had finalized the details of a merger with one of the longest-standing and most respected media institutions in the United States, Dow Jones & Company, Inc. (DJ). After months of negotiations with the Bancroft family—DJ's majority shareholders—Murdoch was finally sitting in the driver's seat and was ready to decide how to navigate the integration of the $ 5.6 billion DJ into the $ 19 billion News Corp, expanding its subscriber base and marketability while simultaneously retaining DJ's editorial independence.
Dow Jones & Company
DJ was founded in 1882 by three reporters, Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. The company's flagship publication was the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), which began daily circulation in July 1889. The WSJ quickly became one of the most sought after and respected daily financial publications in the world. In 1903, Clarence Barron, another career newsman, bought DJ for $ 130,000. After Charles Dow's death in 1912, Barron appointed himself president of the company. For the next three decades, under Barron's leadership, the WSJ's daily circulation grew more than eightfold; Barron also expanded DJ's print publications, one of which was the precursor to today's Barron's, a weekly financial magazine. When Barron died, his son-in-law, Hugh Bancroft, became president, and since then the majority of the company has been owned by the Bancroft family.
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Keywords: Postmerger integration, intellectual capital, RBV
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