Acquisitions

The Dow Jones, publisher of financial publication legends like The Wall Street Journal and MarketWatch, is about to be acquired by Rupert Murdoch. The name might sound familiar as he is the proud and rich owner of News Corp. so the recent purchase will place the Dow Jones publications alongside other important brand names like 20th Century Fox or Daily Telegraph. This may also be the beginning of a long series of changes for the newly purchased newspapers, as Murdoch is renowned for influencing the content of articles; still his new employees' award-winning writing should be a big enough incentive for him to let them the job they know best. The media mogul intends for the Wall Street Journal to contain more general news and become more popular in Europe and Asia; globalization is coming to media channels and as usual, it brings its own kind of change. Antitrust investigations, a frequent problem with any type of big corporations, will not disturb Murdoch and his crew, as studies shows that his TV stations and newspapers don't act on the same local markets. Still, the transaction will be supervised by several commissions and will need the approval of the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice. News Corp. was established in the US in 1980 and bought half of 20th Century Fox the next year. It established the Fox network which has been criticized for not having impartial news, so fears of Murdoch meddling with his journalists' work are not unfounded. Hopefully he will understand the importance of keeping brands like WSJ true to their readers, otherwise the future of good journalism is in great danger.

related story: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/91b3bc28-4062-11dc-9d0c-0000779fd2ac,dwp_uuid=e8477cc4-c820-11db-b0dc-000b5df10621.html

by Corina Ciubotaru for SigEx Ventures (http://sigexventures.com)

SigEx Ventures's matrix of properties are quickly becoming leaders in digital telebroadcasting, free content delivery allowing people to easily talk, view, upload and share through free online TV broadcasting, free unlimited global calls, video blogs and SMS. SigEx Ventures invests in projects deploying "free" to add-on royalty revenue models