Dow Jones & Company employees woke up today as employees of News Corporation and a part of the Rupert Murdoch empire. The 5.6 billion bucks acquisition went to closing yesterday after Dow Jones shareholders voted in favor of the buyout. Dow Jones stockholders will receive 60 bucks in cash for each share of common stock and Class B common stock that they own, except for those who elected to receive instead 2.8681 Class B common units of Ruby Newco LLC, a News Corporation subsidiary that will own all the shares of Dow Jones. In yesterday’s vote, shares representing approximately 60.3% of the outstanding voting power of Dow Jones were cast in favor of the merger. Approximately 77.6% of the outstanding shares of common stock and approximately 54.1% of the outstanding shares of Class B common stock, mostly owned by the Bancroft family, were voted in favor of the transaction. Of the shares that were voted, approximately 94.7% of the common stock and 77.7% of the Class B common stock were voted in favor of the merger, the company reported.
With News Corporation now in charge, Leslie Hinton, a veteran News Corp. executive has taken over as CEO of Dow Jones, with Richard Zannino stepping down. Former Times of London Editor Robert Thomson has been named publisher of Dow Jones and the Wall Street Journal.
An ad running in major newspapers around the world today proclaims “Free People, Free Markets, Free Thinking” in announcing the merger of News Corporation and Dow Jones. While some Murdoch rivals, such as the New York Times, accepted the ad, The Financial Times and China Daily were among those who refused to print it.
