The takeover of the media industry crown jewel, the Dow Jones & Co. Inc. has slowly progressed to next stage in which the controlling Bancroft family sat at one table with Mr. Murdoch and discussed his $US 5 billion offer face to face.

On top of that, there has been number of reports floating around and suggesting, that another bidding consortium (which could even include Mr. Warren Buffett himself) may possibly join the party at the negotiation table.

Personally, I would not be surprised to see a little more competition trying to seize this excellent opportunity and purchase this symbol of American financial markets and perhaps the capitalism itself.

Just to illustrate the significance of the Dow Jones corporation, consider that its flagship, The Wall Street Journal in 1896 gave birth to Dow Jones Industrial average (name after one of the company founders, the creator of the index Mr. Charles Dow).

As you know the DJIA, is being calculated and published by The Journal until this day and is often used as a measuring stick not only for the NYSE but, into certain degree, also for the overall economical performance of the entire World. So the question is, how do you put value on that?

And only after all the above comes into equation the value of worldwide, de facto monopoly position, which most of the businesses owned by the Dow Jones & Co. Inc. enjoy. Sure the times are getting tougher for them and competition is as fierce as ever, but, in the long run, would anyone backup any notion suggesting the fall of the Dow Jones corp? Or significant decline in readership of The World Street Journal? Somehow I don’t think so .
 
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According to few reports floating around, the Bancroft family (ie. holders of the controlling interest in the Dow Jones & Co. Inc.) has agreed to meet with Mr. Murdoch to discuss his US$5 billion bid for the company.

Anyone with a little bit of interest in money markets and investing must have noticed when the bid was first announced. Obviously, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp. has been around for quite some time and has become one of the most dominating players in the worldwide media business. At the current time this company owns such household names as Fox Channels in US, Sky Channels in UK, The New York Post, 20th Century Fox or MySpace.com just to name a few.

And so it seems that the Dow Jones & Co. Inc., whose flagship newspapers The Wall Street Journal hold a prime position in the mind of every self respecting investor around the world, would be a perfect fit.

Why buying Dow Jones?
The company was established in 1882 and over the next 125 years grew into a dominant and trustworhty financial media business. It operates a rather larger number of subsidiaries all around the world including The Wall Street Journal, The Wall Street Journal Asia, The Wall Street Journal Europe, Baron’s, Market Watch and many more mostly media businesses. As would Warren Buffett probably put it, in the field of finance reporting, Dow Jones is having a reasonable “protective moatâ€? around its franchise.

What’s in it for News Corp?
In recent years, Mr. Murdoch’s News Corp. has been surely recognizing the shift in customer’s interests from traditional to other, mainly online based media. Hence the News Corp. has been gaining ever stronger foothold in the online advertising market with number of recent acquisitions, the most interesting one to-date perhaps the purchase of social network website MySpace.com. With The Wall Street Journal , News Corp would, amongst other valuable assets, obtain one of the largest and very well established online subscription newspapers existing today.

If successful with this purchase, sky is the limit for Mr. Murdoch as he could incorporate The Journal’s excellent financial know how into a number of his other media outlets and use it to realise the full advertising potential.

Why would Bancrofts agree to sell?
Reasons may be quite a few, one of them perhaps rather sluggish Dow Jones’ share price performance of recent years. The stock as well as the business itself do not seem to be going anywhere fast and even its, once unchallenged, position of leading financial market reporter is now being tested by the likes of Bloomberg or CNBC.

However, do not discount the Rupert Murdoch’s genius, as he would hardly pay an exuberant price for any business without seeing some great value in it. In the recent interview Warren Buffett was quick to point out, that the owner of The Wall Street Journal does not only hold a great business in his hand but also enjoys certain status (and powers) within the society and amongst the wider public. Such status is impossible to quantify financially but its definitely there, a fact the Bancroft family may be failing to fully appreciate.

To see Warren Buffett’s detailed opinion on Dow Jones & Co. Inc and the proposed transaction, watch the video in my previous article According to Warren.
 
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By the thinking of some, FICO score is only relevant to potential borrowers residing in US and Canada. However, in my opinion, with the growing “virtual credit cardâ€? market of today this may no longer be the case. Since such credit facilities are easier and easier obtainable online, regardless of one’s country of residence, FICO score may soon become of much higher importance to most of us.

As most of you probably know, FICO score is an important measurement of your “financial fitness”. Your personal FICO score determines your risk profile should you apply for a new credit card or a loan. Higher your FICO score, more favourable treatment from the potential lender / credit card company you can expect.

With all that in mind, I made sure to carefully bookmark free FICO score estimator I came across few weeks ago (similar reports normally available for over $15). It was not until today when I finally decided to give it a try.

Upon entering all my details the tool presented me with an estimated score of 680-730 which appears to be in the upper middle area of available FICO range. As I don’t really need new credit card or any kind of loan I am ok with this result however, with my stringent personal financial rules and budgeting in place, I was expecting to do a tiny bit better.

Anyway, you can try it for yourself and let me know if you find the results satisfactory.