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Billionaire To Enlist Yahoo in Dow Jones Bid

  • Fortune, Tuesday, June 19, 2007 11 AM
In the battle for Dow Jones & Company and editorial control of The Wall Street Journal, supermarket mogul Ron Burkle is preparing a surprise bid involving the Web giant Yahoo that would rival News Corp., General Electric, IAC/InterActive Corp. and others reported to be interested in the publishing giant.

Burkle sits on Yahoo's board and is frustrated at the company's inability to compete with Google. Adding a member of the beleaguered newspaper publishing industry (although DJC's Web properties have done admittedly well) to an already-beleaguered Internet company doesn't sound like a recipe for success. But sources say Burkle is serious and will look elsewhere for a bid partner if the Yahoo board says no.

Meanwhile, the Bancroft family, gatekeepers of Dow Jones & Co., mulls the "prohibitively rich" $60 per-share offer lodged by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It's thought to be one the Bancroft's ultimately can't afford to pass up on, although GE and Pearson are also said to be days away from making their own bid.

Read the whole story at Fortune »

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