Matchmaker, Matchmaker: Pearson Looks For Partner To Beat News Corp. For Dow Jones Bid

Apparently, the owner of the Financial Times, Pearson (PSO) is looking for a partner to match and beat News Corp.’s (NWS) $5B bid for Dow Jones (DJ), parent of both Wall Street Journal and Barron’s.

What’s odd, in my opinion, is that this is coming from the WSJ… we saw the news via Paid Content. The timing is good, because talks last week between the Bancrofts and Mr. Murdoch stalled.

Some suggestions:

Thomson (TOC): $27B market cap, leader in all things digital, DJ is strong and this would not be such a step back for Thomson who has turned its attention to B2B over B2C. Problem with Thomson is that they charge for premium content, and WSJ should go free to generate more ad revenue.

Hearst is in the running, with the obligatory “we don’t comment on speculation.” I’m personally less sold on the Hearst fit, though the flip side to that argument is that it would make for a helluva’n entrance in financial news. As well, Hearst being private they need not spin this to Wall Street.

Someone who will have to spin this to Wall Street is:

NBC is a natural fit, because parent GE (GE) has the deep pockets with a market cap north of $300B. As well, some people (like us, sort of) have called for GE to further invest in media or get out. Well, we’re not really saying get out, we’re just asking how much NBC would be worth if it were spun out, as we did here.

With GE stock being caught in a range since Jack Welch left, CEO Jeff Immelt might have some explaining to do, but the flip side is that there’s no business like media business and there’s no brand like WSJ. Mr. Immelt, bring good things to life and consider this. I’ll buy GE for life. Promise.

Who else?

CBS (CBS)? Nope.

Viacom (VIA)? Someone wake them up. Though Chairman Sumner Redstone might be looking to avenge the sting of losing MySpace to Murdoch and this would indeed be a sweet payback.

Disney (DIS). Not sure.

None of the traditional newspaper magazines really have the stomach to double down on newspapers, even though the best time to buy is when an industry is seemingly down and out.

Of course, there’s Warren Buffett… though that would be a long shot.

Microsoft (MSFT) was rumored to have looked at it, but is not necessarily eager to get back into content, though we suggested they should consider it here.

Google (GOOG)? Nope.

Yahoo! (YHOO) Whatever.

Time Warner (TWX). Not gonna happen…