General Electric Co and Pearson Plc said on Thursday they will not pursue a joint offer for publisher Dow Jones & Co Inc, removing a potential challenge to a $5-billion bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.
GE, the world's second-largest company by market capitalisation, and Pearson, publisher of the Financial Times, said they had held exploratory talks over combining their financial news outlets with Dow Jones, home to the Wall Street Journal.
GE controls NBC Universal, which operates top US business cable news channel CNBC. "Following these discussions, GE and Pearson have decided not to pursue this combination," GE said in a statement. "Pearson and NBC Universal continue to discuss co-operative agreements between CNBC and the Financial Times Group." Murdoch aims to compete with CNBC with a business news channel of his own, set to launch later this year.
A spokesman for the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones through its voting shares, had no immediate comment. News Corp declined comment. Murdoch has bid $60 a share for Dow Jones, which has sought to encourage other potential suitors to make an offer.
No rival bids for the entire company have emerged, though MySpace co-founder Brad Greenspan has offered to buy a 25 percent stake. Dow Jones shares fell 49 cents to $60.16 on the New York Stock Exchange. GE fell 14 cents to $38.65. News Corp's Class A shares fell 28 cents to $21.82. Pearson's shares fell 0.9 percent to about 831 pence on the London Stock Exchange.
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