Marek Fuchs
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The Business Press Maven double-dog dares you to name a bigger inconsistency on the front page of a quality newspaper than the one Tuesday's Wall Street Journal sported. Considering the glaring nature of the inconsistency, I couldn't help but think that with all the tension surrounding Rupert Murdoch's bid for Dow Jones(DJ Quote - Cramer on DJ - Stock Picks), the Journal's newsroom denizens might be distracted, their judgment going forward on the issue of takeovers partially skewed. Can it be? Remember: The business media report. The Business Press Maven retorts. You decide. All I know is that there I was Tuesday, reading the two-column, front-page Wall Street Journal lead that didn't make total sense. It seemed overstated, too sensitive to the issue of takeovers: "As Deal Barriers Fall, Takeover Bids Multiply," the headline said, before beginning to hyperventilate in the subheadline: "Regulators and Size Pose Less of a Problem; 'Nobody is Off-Limits.'" Well, The Wall Street Journal might not, as previously thought, be off-limits. But even there, the takeover is hardly a sure thing and there are still plenty of barriers for companies to scale. How does your manservant in all things Wall Street-journalism-related know this? For one, check out the headline right beneath the overstated one. It was a big rebuttal to the thin trend story above it, albeit about the Alcoa(AA Quote - Cramer on AA - Stock Picks)-Alcan(AL Quote - Cramer on AL - Stock Picks) news: "Alcoa's Pursuit of Alcan Faces Several Hurdles: Rivals, Governments Could Thwart an Offer Valued at $26.9 Billion." Rivals? Government? Thwarting? (Boy, do I love that word.) But I thought barriers were falling. Said the second sentence of the article: "It also raises tough questions for antitrust regulators about how big is too big in an increasingly global market." That gets at a point central to the current market. Companies have to worry about regulators in every corner of the globe, not just Washington.
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