Dominating financial information
Recent announcements of takeovers of a critical news sources by a much-criticized news organizations is causing consternation. News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch has made an offer for Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal. His assault on the (primarily) family-owned business was made with an opening, hostile bid of $5 billion.
News Corp. controls the New York Post, The (London) Times, The (London) Sun, and a flock of Australian papers, in addition to the Fox TV and movie holdings and several Web properties, including MySpace.
The issue is not one of creeping concentration and information power. News Corp. has been an especially partisan political player in the US. Now, it is true that the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal specializes in the same kind of right-wing politics that Fox News does, for example. But the rest of the Wall Street Journal is pretty balanced. It is obviously pro-business, of course, but it isn't afraid to criticize outlandish business practices like excessive executive compensation and it has been no blind follower of Bush economic or political policies. The question is how much News Corp. will insert its Fox News approach into the non-opinion pages. We also wonder if any criticism of News Corp. business news, and it makes a lot of it, will be honestly covered.
At the same time, Reuters, the European news agency, has come into play with a bid of $17 billion from Thomson Corp. Thomson was once a prèss empire (in fact it sold the Times of London to New Corp. over a decade ago) but now is involved in a variety of information businesses. Currently Thomson is a distant #3 in the world in providing financial information, while Reuters is #2. (Bloomberg is #1.) The combination of #2 and #3 would make a new #1 in the segment. Last year, Thomson bought financial news agency AFX, from Agence France Presse, a relatively small deal ($40 million). Like Bloomberg and Reuters, Thomson supplies online financial information to traders and other financial professionals. That is a market which Dow Jones, with Fox money and aggression, would like to be a bigger player in.
Meanwhile, it's pick up and discard. Thomson has announced it is selling off its educational and testing division, presumably to generate money for the bid. That until is expected to bring in over $6 billion.
It's no coincidence that the two major filters of financial companies are being wrested away from independent holders to major information oligopolies. Meanwhile other bidders are said to be lining up for their chance at Dow Jones. Some candidates named have been the Washington Post, the New York Times, General Electric, Bloomberg, and conglomerate Berkshire Hathaway Inc.
9:53:57 PM 
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