Happy Returns for Dow Jones Insiders

Kann's successor as chief executive, Richard Zannino, took the helm last summer after five years as a senior executive. He, too, was sitting on hundreds of thousands of options that were worthless below $40.

Murdoch's bid would value his shares and options at $11.9 million.

Those figures are, of course, provisional. Were the company actually to be taken over, you would find head honchos collecting further goodies in one form or another. They always do.