Murdoch, Bancrofts To Have Tea, Discuss $5B Sale Offer

After posturing on both sides, Rupert Murdoch and the Dow Jones’ controlling Bancroft family are scheduled to meet today at the offices of Bancroft family legal adviser Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz. Part social gathering, part business meeting, according to the Wall Street Journal. Attending: Murdoch, News Corp. CFO David DeVoe and general counsel Lawrence Jacobs, Bancroft family members Christopher Bancroft, Leslie Hill and Elizabeth Steele, who are also Dow Jones directors, Dow Jones chairman M. Peter McPherson, family trustee Michael Elefante and attorney Martin Lipton, who is advising the family.

And that doesn’t include the tea-fetching help.

More analysis than is probably necessary:

• NYT: David Carr on the “very modern media moment” — and the social ballet of it all.

• WSJ: Long, tense deliberations, indeed.
• NYT: How the Bancrofts decided to talk with Murdoch.
• FT: “Ensuring the absolute and permanent editorial independence and integrity of the Journal and other Dow Jones publications is the family’s number one priority.”
• Slate: Jack Shafer: The Bancrofts can’t possibly trust Murdoch with the Wall Street Journal.
• LAT: Do we really want Murdoch to control our single most important source of information on business and economics?
• NYT: Some on the WSJ staff don’t.
• WSJ: Murdoch may make concessions.
  

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