It turned out that $1 billion was too much money for the Bancroft family to turn down, and the family is selling their century-old stake in Dow Jones Co. to Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch owns, among other media outlets, Fox and The New York Post. It was too hard for the Bancroft family to turn down Murdoch, who offered $60 per share, a substantial premium over the $36 Dow Jones had been selling for.
In a supreme irony, the arch-conservative Murdoch may be giving Vermont's liberal legislature a gift of at least one million dollars.
Here's how it works: Lisa Steele of Shelburne is a Bancroft family member and sits on Dow Jones Co. board (see here). Due to the Bancroft' family's complicated stock ownership issues, it's impossible to know just how many shares she owns and how much she stands to gain from the sale (she was one of the family members in favor of the sale early on, according to news reports).
According to the NY Times
The family, which has owned Dow Jones since 1902, holds 64 percent of the shareholder vote, with most of the stock held in dozens of trusts with some three dozen beneficiaries.
It's hard to say how the tax accounting from the sale will work, but my rough calculations are that for every million shares of stock Ms. Steele owns, the state of Vermont will receive about $1 million in income tax revenues from the capital gains she earns on the sale.
Governor Douglas should at least write a thank you note to Mr. Murdoch and Ms. Steele.
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