News service Reuters reports that Rupert Murdoch has a serious rival for to buy out US newspaper and information group Dow Jones. Ron Buckle is a US based supermarket magnate and is believed to have had meetings with Dow Jones "to explore options".
Neither Burkle nor Dow Jones made themselves available to Reuters for comment, but it claims that he has already looked into a structure which would include employee stock options. Despite strong interest from Australian born media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, Dow Jones is looking for other bidders to appease Leslie Hill, a director of Dow Jones and member of the Bancroft family, which controls 64 per cent of the company's votes.
There is concern that if Murdoch gains control of Dow Jones its titles like the Wall Street Journal will lose their reputation for independence, which in turn could result in lower readership and revenues.
Dow Jones completed a buyout of news aggregator Factiva from Reuters last year.
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