The board of Dow Jones & Co Inc has endorsed a $5 billion (€3.6 billion) buyout offer from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, sending the deal to the controlling Bancroft family for final approval.
The 16 members of the board, which met for several hours on Tuesday, were not unanimous in their decision but a "strong majority" voted to recommend approving the deal, said one source familiar with the matter.
The board "has determined that it would be prepared to approve, and recommend to the Dow Jones stockholders, including the Bancroft family stockholders, a merger agreement", Dow Jones said in a statement.
Bancroft family members, who control 64 per cent of voting shares in Dow Jones, are evaluating the offer, the company said. The family is set to meet on Monday, according to the Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones's flagship property.
The newspaper said two Bancroft directors, including Christopher Bancroft, did not vote at the Tuesday meeting, while two other Bancroft directors, including family trustee Michael Elefante, voted in favour of the deal.
News Corp said in a statement it was grateful to the Dow Jones board for its "strong vote of support." Shares in News Corp rose 1.6 per cent to A$27.98 (€17.80) in trade in Sydney yesterday.
Dow Jones closed down about 1 per cent at $56.45 in New York on Tuesday before the news was announced.
News Corp proposed in April to buy all outstanding shares of Dow Jones's common and Class B stock for $60 per share.
The rich 65 per cent premium was welcomed by many shareholders, although a number of Bancrofts opposed the bid because they fear that Murdoch would use the platform provided by Dow Jones's news operations, particularly the Journal, to aid his business interests.
Dow Jones publishes the Journal, the Barron's investor newspaper and the MarketWatch.com financial news website.
It also owns Dow Jones Newswires, which competes with Reuters Group Plc and Bloomberg in providing financial news.
Christopher Bancroft, who has been seeking to buy up Dow Jones Class B "super-voting" shares in a bid to block a sale to Murdoch, did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
The possibility remains that enough members of the Bancroft family and other Class B shareholders could block a sale to News Corp.
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