Dow Jones & Company
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Dow Jones & Company Inc. | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Type | Private company |
| Founded | 15 Wall Street, New York (1882) |
| Founder | Charles Dow, Edward Jones, Charles Bergstresser |
| Headquarters | New York City |
| Key people | Les Hinton, CEO[1] (Through News Corporation) |
| Industry | News and Publishing |
| Products | Wall Street Journal Barron's Magazine Dow Jones Newswires Dow Jones Indexes Dow Jones Financial Information Services Factiva Far Eastern Economic Review MarketWatch.com SmartMoney Vedomosti FiLife.com (See complete products listing.) |
| Revenue | ▲$1.783 Billion USD (2006) |
| Net income | ▲$386.56 Million USD (2006) |
| Parent | News Corporation |
| Website | www.dowjones.com |
Dow Jones & Company is an American publishing and financial information firm.
The company was founded in 1882 by three reporters: Charles Dow, Edward Jones, and Charles Bergstresser. Like The New York Times and the Washington Post, the company was in recent years publicly traded but privately controlled. The company was led by the Bancroft family, which effectively controlled 64% of all voting stock, before being acquired by News Corporation.
The company became a subsidiary of News Corporation after an extended takeover bid during 2007. [2] It was reported on the 1st of August 2007 that the bid had been successful[2][3] after an extended period of uncertainty about shareholder agreement[4]. The transaction was completed on 13th December 2007. It is worth US$5 billion or $60 a share, giving NewsCorp control of The Wall Street Journal and ending the Bancroft family's 105 years of ownership[5]
Contents |
[edit] Print Publishing
Its flagship publication, The Wall Street Journal, is a daily newspaper covering U.S. and international business and financial news and issues. It began publishing on July 8, 1889. Other versions of the Journal include:
- The Wall Street Journal Italy covering Italy business;
- The Wall Street Journal Europe covering European business;
- The Wall Street Journal Special Editions division publishes translations of articles for inclusion in local newspapers, notably in Latin America.
Sister publications of the Journal include Barron's Magazine, a weekly overview of the world economy and markets; the monthly journal Far Eastern Economic Review; and the consumer magazine SmartMoney in conjunction with the Hearst Corporation.
Dow Jones also owns Ottaway Newspapers, Inc., which publishes several community newspapers in the U.S.
[edit] Electronic Publishing
Dow Jones Electronic Publishing hosts several websites. In addition to online editions of its publications, the company operates the career advancement-oriented CareerJournal.com and CollegeJournal.com; OpinionJournal.com, with featured content from the Wall Street Journal's politically conservative editorial pages; business portals StartupJournal.com and RealEstateJournal.com; and Factiva, a news and business information service, which it jointly owned with Reuters until agreeing in October 2006 to buy out the British company's 50% stake.
In January of 2005, Dow Jones purchased MarketWatch in a transaction valued at $528 million. MarketWatch is a popular financial website among retail investors, and Dow Jones purportedly coveted its successful business-to-consumer advertising base to augment its reliance on business-to-business advertising and subscription-based business models.
Dow Jones also owns Dow Jones Newswires, which is a news wire and competes with Reuters and Bloomberg News.
Dow Jones also owns Dow Jones Financial Information Services, which is a leading provider of news, information and events on specialized financial markets and industry sectors including private equity, venture capital, bankruptcy & debt, energy & commodities, foreign trade and other areas.
In 2007, Dow Jones and IAC/InterActiveCorp joined forces and established a personal finance website FiLife.com, which will use content from Dow Jones properties the Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch.[6]
[edit] Broadcasting
In broadcasting, Dow Jones provides news content to CNBC in the U.S. It produces two shows for commercial radio, The Wall Street Journal Report and The Dow Jones Money Report.
[edit] Indices
The company is also responsible for several widely used stock market indices, among them:
- Dow Jones Composite Average
- Dow Jones Global Titans
- Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA, "Dow 30," or often simply "the Dow")
- Dow Jones Transportation Average
- Dow Jones Utility Average
- Dow Jones U.S. Large Cap Growth
- Dow Jones U.S. Large Cap Value
- Dow Jones U.S. Small Cap Growth
- Dow Jones U.S. Small Cap Value
- Dow Jones Wilshire 5000 Total Market Index
- Dow Jones Sustainability Index
- Dow Jones Hedge Fund Indexes
[edit] Ownership
The Bancroft family and heirs of Clarence W. Barron, once effectively controlled the company class B shares, each with a voting power of 10 regular shares prior to its sale to News Corp. At one time, they controlled 64% of Dow Jones voting stock.[7]
[edit] Buyout offer
On May 1, 2007, Dow Jones released a statement confirming that News Corporation, led by Rupert Murdoch, had made an unsolicited offer of $60 per share, or $5 billion, for Dow Jones.[8] Stock was briefly halted for pending press release. The halt lasted under 10 minutes while CNBC was receiving data.
It has been suggested that the buyout offer is related to Murdoch's new cable business news channel Fox Business that launched in 2007. The Dow Jones brand brings instant credibility to the project.[9]
On June 6, 2007, CEO Brian Tierney of Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C., owning company of The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, went public in an article on Philly.com expressing interest in "joining with outside partners to buy Dow Jones." Tierney said, "We would participate as Philadelphia Media Holdings, along with other investors. We wouldn't do it alone." [10]
In June MySpace founder Brad Greenspan put forth a bid to buy 25% of the Dow for $60 a share, the same price per share as News Corporation's. Greenspans offer is for $1.25 billion for 25% of the company.[11]
On July 17, 2007 The Wall Street Journal, a unit of Dow Jones reported that the company and News Corporation have agreed in principle on a US$5 billion take over and that the offer will be put to the full Dow Jones board on the same evening in New York. The offer values the company at 70% more than the company's market value.[12]
On July 21, 2007, Channel News Asia reports Internet tycoon and MySpace.com founder Brad Greenspan offers new plan for Dow Jones to foil Murdoch's offer of the US$5 billion Dow Jones buyout.
The Internet entrepreneur who last month bid for a stake in Dow Jones & Co. on Friday made a new offer aimed at helping controlling family shareholders find an alternative to an offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
The latest announcement from Brad Greenspan, the founder of the MySpace social network website, came after Dow Jones’ board members accepted Murdoch's five-billion-dollar bid that was to be debated by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority voting stake.
Greenspan's revised offer calls for his investment group to provide a loan of between 400 million and 600 million dollars to Bancroft family members "to buy out liquidity-seeking family members" at 60 dollars per share -- matching the Murdoch offer.
This would allow the family to retain control. Greenspan's group "would receive the rights to all value created in the stock above 60 dollars per share."
The plan also calls for a recapitalization of the company by issuing debt and expanding into a number of online ventures to benefit from the brand name of Dow Jones and its key asset, The Wall Street Journal.
"Our strategy centers around leaving the print publications of Dow Jones intact to continue serving as the gold standard of financial reporting, and creating additional earnings streams through digital media initiatives that can produce a stock price above 100 dollars a share,
For too long, Dow Jones has limited its focus to the world of print media and allowed other, less established entities to generate millions of dollars in profits by developing financial reporting franchises on the Internet and cable television.
The time has come for Dow Jones to break out of its slumber and extend its dominance into the lucrative arena of digital media."
—Channel News Asia Business Section— http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_world_business/view/289501/1/.html
[edit] Insider trading scandal
Upon investigating suspicious share price movements in the run-up to the announcement, the SEC alleged that board member David Li, one of Hong Kong's most prominent businessmen, had informed his close friend and business associate Michael Leung of the impending offer. Leung had acted on this information by telling his daughter and son-in-law, who reaped a US$8.2 million profit from the transaction.[13]
[edit] Corporate Governance
Prior to its sale to News Corp, the last members of the board of directors of the company were: Christopher Bancroft, Lewis B. Campbell, Michael Elefante, John Engler, Harvey Golub, Leslie Hill, Irvine Hockaday, Peter Kann, David Li, M. Peter McPherson (Chairman), Frank Newman, James Ottaway, Elizabeth Steele, and William Steere.
[edit] References
- ^ Dow Jones - Executives at Dow Jones & Co Inc
- ^ BBC - Murdoch wins fight for Dow Jones
- ^ Times Online - News Corp wins $5.6bn battle to control Dow Jones
- ^ Times Online - Dow Jones board agrees News Corp's $5bn offer; July 18, 2007
- ^ Bloomberg.com: Worldwide
- ^ paidcontent.org - Dow Jones/IAC Online Ventures
- ^ BBC News - Dow Jones family to consider sale - 1 June 2007
- ^ Money.CNN.com
- ^ thefirstpost.co.uk - Rupert Murdoch comes roaring back
- ^ [1]
- ^ Market Dispatches - MSN Money
- ^ - "'Dow Jones, News Corp. Set Deal' - Wall Street Journal July 17, 2007
- ^ The News Corp-Dow Jones Insider Trading Case: A Significant Settlement, SEC Actions, 6 February 2008
[edit] See also
- Dow Jones Industrial Average
- Closing milestones of the Dow Jones Industrial Average
- List of assets owned by Dow Jones
[edit] External links
- Dow Jones corporate site
- Dow Jones corporate history and profiles of Dow and Jones
- Dow Jones Indexes corporate site
- Wall Street Journal
- Dow Jones Newswires
- Yahoo! Finance - Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Company Profile
- Historic Dow Jones Chart 1900-2010
- MarketWatch news site
- Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes
- Industry Classification Benchmark - Dow Jones Indexes and FTSE
- A history of major Indexes - Dow Jones, NASDAQ,SP500
