Dow Jones sale thisclose

Don't be put off by the denials of this morning's report in the British newspaper The Business that a deal is basically at hand. It's true that members of the Bancroft family haven't formally signed off on the $5 billion sale to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., and there is still some fit-and-finish to be worked out. But it's looking as if an announcement is only days away (which is what the British paper reported). John Carney at DealBreaker posts that "the right people—lawyers, bankers—are busy this weekend, not making appearances at places we expected them to be. And they are clamming up, as they often do before a deal is announced to the market. From this, well, anti-leaking we’re reading an imminent deal." He has boosted his Murdoch Meter - measuring the chances of News Corp buying Dow Jones - to 95 percent. For all you desperados who liken a Murdoch purchase to the start of WW III, that still give you 5 percent hope. Oh, and indications are that the deal will be $60 a share, which is exactly what Murdoch had first proposed (when you're the only serious bidder, there's not much motivation to raise the price). From The Business:

Younger members of the Bancroft family, who have no involvement in Dow Jones, pressured their relatives to accept the Murdoch offer and pocket the 67% premium, knowing that, in the absence of another buyer, the Dow Jones share price would plummet if no deal was done. Those Bancrofts more closely associated with the company have reluctantly concluded that they have no alternative but to sell to the 76-year-old Australian-American media mogul. According to sources acting for Dow Jones in the negotiations, the deal was delayed until agreement was reached on a legally-binding undertaking by Murdoch to preserve the Wall Street Journal’s editorial independence.