Report: GE And Microsoft Pondered Bid For Dow Jones

from the white-knights dept

After News Corp. signaled its intentions to buy Dow Jones early last month, many felt that the biggest loser could be GE, which partners with Dow Jones on its lucrative CNBC franchise. After all, News Corp.'s Fox is gearing up to launch a business channel of its own, which is already expected to be a formidable competitor to CNBC; add the assets of Dow Jones to the mix and the competition looks even scarier for CNBC. So it's not surprising to read reports that say GE had considered its own bid for Dow Jones, before choosing against the idea. What's interesting is that the plan was to partner with Microsoft on the bid. The two companies already have ties through MSNBC, and Microsoft still has a mountain of cash that investors would love to see deployed. It's not clear why the companies didn't end up making a bid, but last month GE CEO Jeff Immelt indicated that his company had no interest in Dow Jones . Assuming the reports are true, News Corp.'s aggressive move is frightening GE more than it's letting on.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.