General Electric and Microsoft discussed joining forces for a competing bid for Dow Jones & Co. in recent weeks, but the idea was abandoned, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday.
Dow Jones is the parent company of The Wall Street Journal. General Electric is the parent company of CNBC.Â
GE and Microsoft discussed matching News Corp.'s $60 per share offer for Dow Jones, according to the report in the Journal's online edition, which cited people briefed on the discussions.
GE would then have combined Dow Jones with its NBC Universal unit, in part to stave off competition from News Corp., which is planning a business television channel to rival GE's CNBC.
None of the companies mentioned in the report immediately returned calls seeking comment.
Dow Jones has been exploring alternatives to the News Corp. offer, but those efforts have yet to yield another serious bidder, the Journal said.
