Pearson puts out feelers on Dow Jones

PEARSON PUTS OUT FEELERS ON DOW JONES
[SOURCE: Financial Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson, Francesco Guerrera and Joshua Chaffin]
Pearson, owner of the Financial Times, is in active discussions with General Electric about a possible joint offer for Dow Jones in response to Rupert Murdoch’s $5bn attempt to buy the Wall Street Journal. Neither Pearson nor General Electric would comment, but people familiar with the situation said that Pearson had made contact in recent weeks with the US conglomerate, which controls the NBC entertainment group and CNBC, the business news channel. GE and Pearson have met, these people said, but they cautioned that the talks were of a preliminary nature and that it was not yet clear whether they would lead to a bid. GE would be expected to finance a large part of any offer, according to people familiar with the matter. Pearson is also understood to have reached out to Barry Diller’s IAC and Hearst. Neither company was available to comment.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/efdf08a2-1b82-11dc-bc55-000b5df10621.html
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* FT Looking To Enter Joint Bid For Dow Jones
http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1003599759

* G.E. and Pearson Are Said to Study Bid for Dow Jones
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/18/business/media/18dow.html