GE, Pearson give up bid for Dow Jones

General Electric Co. and the Financial Times publisher Pearson have decided to give up the bidding for Dow Jones & Company, the companies said Thursday.

GE and Pearson said they would continue to explore "cooperative agreements between CNBC and the Financial Times Group" but have dropped Dow Jones from their discussions.

Pearson spokesman Luke Swanson said a competing bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., a 60 dollar-a-share buyout offer on the table for Dow Jones, had proved too rich for the two companies to overcome.

Earlier this month, Los Angeles billionaire Ron Burkle has joined the bid battle against Rupert Murdoch' offer for Dow Jones.

Burkle told the Independent Association of Publishers' Employees, which represents 2,000 Dow Jones workers, that he was interested in working with the union to put together an offer for the company.

Last month, Dow Jones, the publisher of The Wall Street Journal received the bid from News Corporation to buy the company for about 5 billion dollars, or 60 dollars a share either in cash or a combination of cash and News Corp. stock.
Source : http://english.people.com.cn