NEW YORK, July 30 News Corp. would likely drop its $5 billion Dow Jones & Co. bid if the Bancroft family shows no more support for the deal, a News Corp. spokesman said Monday.
The family needed about 2 percent more votes as of late Sunday to reach the approximately 30 percent needed to sell the company to Rupert Murdoch's company, Dow Jones's Wall Street Journal reported Monday.
If the family-vote count remains around 28 percent, News Corp. would probably not take the deal to a full Dow Jones shareholder vote, the spokesman told the Journal.
The Bancrofts had until 5 p.m. EDT Monday to present lead family trustee Michael Elefante with voting agreements to sell shares to News Corp, which has offered $60 a share for Dow Jones.
The family, which controls 64 percent of Dow Jones's shareholder power, remained deeply divided over the decision, the newspaper said.
After the signed voting agreements are received, Elefante will inform Dow Jones's board of the results.
Common shareholders representing 29 percent of the overall voting shares are expected to vote for the deal, the newspaper said.
A person close to Murdoch said he was comfortable with walking away at this point if the family didn't accept his offer, the Journal said.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
