New York – Dow Jones may fetch $100 a share in a takeover, said Michael Price, whose mutual funds were among the industry’s best performers during the 1980s and ’90s.
“This is a trophy,” said Price on Wednesday, whose MFP Investors LLC owned 351,000 Dow Jones shares as of Dec. 31. “This could be a $100 deal.”
Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. offered $60 a share Tuesday for the owner of The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s and Dow Jones Newswires. The bid, 65 percent above the previous day’s close, was rejected by Bancroft family members who control more than 50 percent of the voting power at the New York-based publisher.
“Rupert will meet with the family over the next month. He’ll schmooze them,” Price said. “He’ll smoke out other bidders.”
The Dow Jones board is scheduled to meet Wednesday, The Wall Street Journal reported. A Dow Jones spokesman didn’t immediately return a phone message seeking comment about the board meeting.
A deal with News Corp., the third-largest U.S. media company, would blend Dow Jones assets with Murdoch’s empire of 170 newspapers, stretching from Sydney, Australia, to New York to London, and its Fox News cable network. Murdoch said in February that his planned Fox business channel will start by the end of this year.
