Gazprom Considered Bid for Dow Jones -- Times of London

Gazprom, the Russian state-controlled energy company, considered submitting a bid for Dow Jones to rival Rupert Murdoch's $5 billion offer, the Times of London reported Monday. Murdoch's bid became public on May 1. An SEC regulatory filing indicates that following that bid, Dow Jones was contacted by 21 "potential transaction partners" but none made a competitive offer. Among them was "an international oil and gas company," later identified as Gazprom. The filing does not say how far the talks with the company -- labeled "Company F" -- got, but does say no specific proposal was made. "Even if Gazprom had proceeded," the Times notes, "it is thought highly unlikely that The Wall Street Journal would have been allowed to fall into the hands of a state-backed Russian company." In addition to its oil and gas businesses, Gazprom has entered the agriculture, automotive and media businesses. It owns the national television station NTV as well as the newspaper Izvestia. The WSJ notes that private equity firm Blackstone Group was also interested in Dow Jones.

Sources: Times Online, Wall Street Journal
Commentary: Dow Jones Accepts News Corp. Offer • Murdoch Takes Dow Jones: The Battle Commences • Murdoch Gets Dow Jones - Now What?
Stocks/ETFs to watch: DJ, NWS, OGZPY.PK, BX. ETFs: PBS, PEJ
Earnings call transcript: Dow Jones Q2 2007, News Corporation F3Q07, The Blackstone Group Q2 2007

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