Bancrofts, Dow Jones Board Sued By Shareholder

[DeSwiss]

SOURCE: Reuters-UK

Bancrofts, Dow Jones Board Sued By Shareholder
Sat May 5, 2007 12:07 AM BST

NEW YORK (Reuters) - An investor lawsuit filed in New York State court this week accuses the Bancroft family and directors of Dow Jones & Co. Inc. (DJ.N: Quote, Profile , Research) of failing to properly evaluate News Corp.'s (NWSa.N: Quote, Profile , Research) bid for the company. Earlier this week, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. made a $5 billion bid for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

The company said its board would not act on Murdoch's $60 per share offer after a majority of the Bancroft family, which controls 64.2 percent of Dow Jones voting stock, indicated they would veto a deal.

The shareholder class action suit, filed by Nora Vines on Thursday in the Supreme Court of the State of New York, alleges the Bancroft family and company directors exercised poor business judgment and rejected Murdoch's offer "in bad faith." The suit claims the Bancrofts and Dow Jones directors rejected Murdoch's offer with the motive of solidifying their dominance over the company.

The rejection of the offer by the Bancrofts and directors "represents an ill-considered, hasty reaction, which did not satisfy their duty to obtain adequate information before rejecting a bona fide acquisition proposal," the suit read. Michael Elefante, the trustee representing the Bancroft family and a member of Dow Jones' board, did not return a telephone call seeking comment. "We have not received a copy of the complaint and, accordingly, have no comments at this time," said Howard Hoffman, a Dow Jones spokesman.

http://investing.reuters.co.uk/news/articleinvesting.aspx?type=tnBusinessNews&storyID=2007-05-04T230728Z_01_N04224901_RTRIDST_0_BUSINESS-DOWJONES-SUIT-DC.XML&rpc=92

*** - Oooo, greedy, filthy rich people fighting each other over amassing even more money. I'll bet Rupert is behind the lawsuit too. And is now laughing his ass off. This should be interesting.

:popcorn:

[flyarm]

1. wanna bet that lady is an extremist fundy??????????? eom

[no_hypocrisy]

3. Or financed by Rupert Murdoch to file this lawsuit.

Minority shareholders generally cannot compel the majority to sell their shares unless it can be proved that such forebearance would harm the corporation. Choosing to forego a business opportunity is not necessarily harmful to a corporation that was doing pretty well up to the time of the offer.

[MadHound]

2. I truly hope that the Bancrofts and WSJ win this one

I fully realize that the WSJ is a conservative rag, but at least it is an intellectually honest rag, especially when it comes to the economy. Sadly if Murdoch gets ahold of the WSJ we can expect the same sort of spin applied to the economy that we've seen on Faux news. And sad to say, that will truly hurt the investing sector.

[Frank Cannon]

4. Murdoch would DESTROY the WSJ...

and the Bancrofts and Dow Jones know it.

As nutty as the WSJ editorial page is, the business news is the most complete and accurate there is. Murdoch would turn the WSJ into another right-wing fantasy rag about as trustworthy as a five-dollar watch, like he's done with every other media outlet he's bought.