US manufacturing giant General Electric and Financial Times publisher Pearson PLC are in talks about making a joint bid for Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday Citing unnamed people familiar with the matter, the newspaper said the two companies have discussed a scenario in which GE's CNBC business channel, the FT and Dow Jones would be combined into a privately held joint venture.
The venture would be owned equally by GE and Pearson, with the Bancrofts holding a minority stake, the report said. The GE-Pearson talks signal that an alternative may be emerging to News Corp's five-billion-dollar bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, the paper said.