There’s been a lot of discussion in the media recently over Rupert Murdoch’s bid for Dow Jones. There have been various episodes of hand-wringing–what would the patron of Fox News do to the Wall Street Journal?–and speculation over counter bids. Would the Philadelphia Inquirer’s owner, Brian Tierney, make a bid?
Today it came out that GE and Microsoft, currently married with MSNBC, had reviewed the possibility of making their own bid, to keep News Corp at bay as they mount a business television rival to CNBC. However, the two companies executives ultimately determined that the "economics didn’t make sense". Apparently, they couldn’t see a way to beat Murdoch’s $60 per share offer and make it profitable. But how is Murdoch going to make a $5B bid work? Obviously he has some idea of what he’s going to do with Dow Jones.
Have you guessed yet where I’m leading with this? If not, imagine if the answer to where Murdoch sees dollar signs after a $5B deal came from the marketing department. Victor Cook has the fundamentals that shed light on Dow Jones’ valuation in his latest post on the Enterprise Marketing Framework. Makes you wonder what GE and Microsoft were looking at.
Dow Jones is a great property, with two of the most recognized brands on the planet: Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones Averages. Yet, neither of these brands are listed in the Business Week “Top 100 Brands.” Years of failure to capitalize on these intangible assets has left the prize open to the only one who seems to get it: Rupert Murdoch. Chris, thanks for the link.