Key Bancroft Family Trust to Vote Against News Corp. Bid for Dow Jones

WS Journal ^ | July 27, 2007 | MATTHEW KARNITSCHNIG

[Anti-Bubba182]

The Denver branch of the Bancroft family, Dow Jones & Co.'s controlling shareholder, is to vote against accepting News Corp.'s $60-a-share offer, putting pressure on News Corp. to raise its offer, according to a person familiar with the situation.

The Denver trust, which holds 9.1% of Dow Jones's voting stock, is seen as an important faction within the Bancroft family. The trust is seen as a seller but had been pushing for a higher price....[snip]

The Denver trust has argued that the super-voting B class shareholders should receive a premium of 10-20% over the $60 offer. In their view, News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch should be willing to pay an extra $120 million to $240 million -- the cost of paying more to B shareholders -- to clinch the $5 billion deal. The Bancroft family owns about 83% of the roughly 20 million B shares.........

[Anti-Bubba182]

A premium of 10-20%! They should publish the names of these chiselers. The "super-voting B class shareholders" should never have been legal in the first place.

[nevergore]

Why are they chislers?

Because the Trust is holding out for a higher price by leveraging their Class A sharess?

Looks like good business to me....

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Insiders having a voting advantage? Super votes?

Let's have Rupert purchase the WSJ (which I subscribe to).

[ken5050]

Rupert will walk away...watch the stock drop 50%..then come back with another, lower offer..

[Zuben Elgenubi]

Then, that is when ZE comes into purchase voting stock. We could easily double the investment in a very short time.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Yes there is a special class of stock with extra voting power.

[Always Right]

I would sue the SOBs if I was a shareholder.

[spyone]

The Bancrofts are do nothing idiots. Firstly, it is against the law for them to get a premium over everybody else. They are lucky sperms from ancestors of 100 years ago. Count yourself lucky and do something on your own. Proves their desire for editorial contrinuity is just crap.

[Always Right]

Rupert will walk away...watch the stock drop 50%..then come back with another, lower offer..

I bought some options on this stock this week. $55 AUG Calls and $45 AUG Puts. If the sale went through, I would make enough money on the Calls to pay for the Puts. And if they rejected the sale and the price dropped back to the $30's, I would make a killing on the Puts. I figured it was a free bet. With all the uncertainty on this, both went up in price. I wasn't really expecting that. I sold the Calls since they went up enough to pay for my Puts. Now I am just hoping those Murdoch-hating liberals refuse to sell to Murdoch, which now looks like a real possibility. I imagine they will get death threats if they do though.

[Anti-Bubba182]

Right! The only good thing is that they don’t get involved and make things worse like Pinch Sulzberger of the NY Times.

[spyone]

Good idea...I hope you make money. However, you’ve got three weeks for it to work. The Bancrofts are deadbeats who can’t make a decision. It could drag on.

[Uncle Hal]

If I remember correctly, the Bancroft's have 64% of the voting right”s while the public stockholders have 36%. It is probably a good guess that 90% plus of the public stockholders will vote to sell. Thus if 35% of the Bancroft's agree to sell that means a majority votes to sell and it is probably a done deal. (I think my math is right.)

[DemEater]

There are other scenarios such as a decision being put off for a while, a rejection but the stock not tanking a ton because it predicts a second offer, or a future offer, etc. etc.

[Always Right]

I don’t think anyone is going to pay the premium Murdoch did. They are delusional if they think they can reject the offer and still maintain the current price level. This is at best a $35 stock if they reject this offer, IMHO.

[Anti-Bubba182]

I hope the deal goes through. It will be the end of another
dynasty.