Big news today is the likelihood of a bid for Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones by Financial Times owner Pearson. It's an obvious attempt by Pearson to prevent Rupert Murdoch from getting his hands on its rival and so offering stiffer competition to the FT.
According to a Daily Telegraph report, Pearson has been in contact with possible US partners to launch a counter bid to Murdoch's $5bn (£2.5bn) offer. They include General Electric - the conglomerate that owns the NBC entertainment group - and newspaper publisher Hearst. A similar FT report also suggested that Pearson had been in touch with Barry Diller's company, IAC. Both articles refer to all talks having been preliminary.
But Pearson's move makes a great deal of sense. It would bring together two of the most influential names in business journalism and protect the FT from the likely emergence under Murdoch of a more focused and better-resourced Journal.
As the Telegraph's commentator, Richard Fletcher comments, Pearson's ceo, Marjorie Scardino, was almost obliged to counter Murdoch's bid. Much as Dame Marj might like to rely on the Bancroft family to resist Rupert, that hardly amounts to a strategy. So, he concludes, "trying to drum up a rival consortium... shows fighting spirit... She may have left it too late, and the odds seem long, but she has got to have a crack."
And what's more...
Pearson will have a little bit to add to its war chest if, as seems likely, it sells off its French business title, Les Echos. A sale is expected within weeks for an estimated €200m (£135m). The likely buyer is Bernard Arnault, chief executive of the LVMH luxury goods group, which already owns La Tribune, a rival daily business newspaper, as well as Investir, an investment magazine and website. Les Echos claims a paid circulation of almost 120,000 day.
So, in the US, Britain and France, all eyes are on Pearson right now.
