Jim Ottaway, who with his family controls 6.2 per cent of Dow Jones shares, voiced opposition to the unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
NEW YORK: A key shareholder in Wall Street Journal parent Dow Jones Co. voiced opposition on Monday to the unsolicited bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. launched last week.
Jim Ottaway, who with his family controls 6.2 per cent of Dow Jones shares, said in a column appearing in both the Wall Street Journal and Washington Post that the company's journalistic integrity "would be damaged if Rupert Murdoch takes over Dow Jones."
"The controlling shareholders of Dow Jones should answer News Corp.'s unsolicited offer by saying: 'Dow Jones is not for sale, at any price, to Rupert Murdoch,'" Ottaway wrote.
The board of directors for Dow Jones announced last week that it will take no action on the surprise offer.
Controlling shares belong to the Bancroft family, and a representative has told the board the family opposes the bid of five billion dollars, which is a stunning 63 per cent premium to the earlier value of Dow Jones shares.
The Wall Street Journal is the prize asset of Dow Jones and the most prominent daily business publication in the United States.
Ottaway, who acquired the shares when Dow Jones bought his family's group of community newspapers, said Murdoch's journalistic values are not the same as that of Dow Jones.
Murdoch "comes from a very different tradition of Australian-British media ownership and editorial practice," Ottaway said. "He has long expressed his political and business biases through his newspapers and television channels. We see this every day in his New York Post, which regularly runs biased news stories and headlines supporting his friends and public policies or attacking people he personally opposes.
"His Fox News Channel, run by former Republican Party strategist Roger Ailes, is a unique example in American broadcasting in which one man's political opinions have become the editorial and news policy of a national news channel."
Although family interests hold the majority of Dow Jones voting shares, some analysts say other shareholders may sue if the controlling stakeholders block an attractive offer.
Murdoch's bid would add the Journal and other Dow Jones media properties to his empire, which includes the Fox News Channel, MySpace, 20th Century Fox, the New York Post and the Times of London.
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