Protesting sale, Dow director quits
A Dow Jones director resigned Thursday to protest
the planned sale of the company to Rupert Murdoch’s News
Corporation.
A Dow Jones director resigned Thursday to protest the planned sale of the company to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, publicly siding with those who say such a shift in ownership would undermine the quality of Dow Jones and its flagship, The Wall Street Journal.
The director, Dieter von Holtzbrinck, abstained when the Dow Jones board voted Tuesday night to accept News Corporation’s $60-a-share offer for a stock that was trading at about $36 before the bid became public.
“Although I’m convinced that News Corp. offer is very generous in financial terms, I’m very worried that Dow Jones unique journalistic values will long-term strongly suffer after the proposed sale,” he wrote in a resignation letter…In his letter, he acknowledged that ordinarily, a director’s duty to shareholders is to vote for the most lucrative deal, “except if one can prove that such deal bears risks for the company that overcompensate the financial profits.”
The Board of Directors seems to trust Rupert Murdoch. Hmm. Wonder if anything else influenced their decision?
Posted: Fri - July 20, 2007 at 11:28 AM