Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones and Co ran into more resistance on Sunday as a large Dow Jones shareholder said he strongly opposed News Corp's bid to take over the financial news publisher, which owns the Wall Street Journal.
Jim Ottaway, a former Dow Jones board member, said on the Journal's Web site that a Murdoch takeover would lead to the "loss of the independence and integrity of a leading national editorial voice."
"Rupert Murdoch comes from a different tradition of Australian-British media ownership and editorial practice in which he has for a long time expressed his personal, political and business biases through his newspapers and television channels," Ottaway said. "The Bancroft family has treated Dow Jones as a public trust, not for personal or political interests, or maximum enhancement of family wealth by sale to a high bidder."
Ottaway said he also opposed a sale to Murdoch because it would further concentrate media ownership and influence.
The US$5 billion bid for Dow Jones from Murdoch's News Corp has already been opposed by Dow Jones' controlling shareholders, the Bancroft family, but the family is not united in its stance.
Dow Jones has said a family representative indicated that Bancroft family members representing 52 percent of the company's shareholder vote would oppose the bid -- not quite all of the family's voting power of 64 percent.
The opposition of Ottaway, whose family controls about 6.2 percent of Dow Jones's supervoting shares, would make it tougher for Murdoch to gain control of Dow Jones.
Meanwhile, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has sold its entire 7.5 percent stake in rival Australian company Fairfax Media for around A$380 million (US$312 million), both companies said yesterday.
Reasons for the sale were not given.
Fairfax chairman Ron Walker said News Corp had informed the company that it had sold its 75 million shares at a price of A$5.07. News Corp confirmed the sale.
Fairfax shares fell 2.66 percent yesterday to close at A$5.13.
‘TAIWAN-FRIENDLY’: The last time the Web site fact sheet removed the lines on the US not supporting Taiwanese independence was during the Biden administration in 2022 The US Department of State has removed a statement on its Web site that it does not support Taiwanese independence, among changes that the Taiwanese government praised yesterday as supporting Taiwan. The Taiwan-US relations fact sheet, produced by the department’s Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs, previously stated that the US opposes “any unilateral changes to the status quo from either side; we do not support Taiwan independence; and we expect cross-strait differences to be resolved by peaceful means.” In the updated version published on Thursday, the line stating that the US does not support Taiwanese independence had been removed. The updated
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
RSS