NEW YORK – Rupert Murdoch cleared another hurdle on his way to owning the Wall Street Journal late Tuesday when the board of Dow Jones & Co., the Journal's parent company, said it would sign off on a sale to Murdoch's News Corp. for $5 billion.
Dow Jones said in a statement that its board was prepared to recommend a proposal for News Corp. to acquire Dow Jones for $60 in cash, the price Murdoch has proposed.
However the deal has yet to overcome its largest obstacle — approval by the mercurial Bancroft family, Dow Jones' controlling shareholders. The family initially rebuffed Murdoch's offer in early May, only to reconsider later.
The family has controlled the storied newspaper publisher for more than a century and views it as a public trust. They insisted on, and received, a commitment to create an oversight board which must approve the hiring or firing of top editors at the Journal.
With board approval now cleared, the deal will next be presented to family members, most likely on Monday, and they will have several days to consider it. The family, which has some three dozen adult members spread across the country, has been deeply divided over whether to sell to Murdoch.
News Corp is the parent company of FOXNews.com.
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