As 24/7 Wall St. wrote on May 19, Pearson (PSO) is attempting to put together a bid to buy Dow Jones (DJ). Hearst, which co-publishes SmartMoney with Dow Jones, and GE (GE) which has a partnership through its CNBC website, have been approached to join the group making the bid.
Pearson is already in closely related businesses. It owns the Financial Times, FT.com, and 50% of the global magazine, The Economist. The company, which was founded in 1844, has many of the same principles as Dow Jones on matters of editorial independence. A bid from the company would be viewed as preferable to selling the company to Rupert Murdoch.
Pearson is much larger that Dow Jones. Last year, it had revenue of $8.1 billion and operating income of $1.1 billion. Its market cap is over $14 billion compared to Dow Jones at $5 billion.
A combination of the two companies could involve substantial editorial and distribution savings.
Douglas A. McIntyre