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.
