Beware Monday Morning Merger Talk

Media on Media

The interesting thing about this Monday, however, is that Rupert Murdoch will be meeting with the Bancroft family. This deal is interesting on a number of different fronts -- from its effects on the future of business media to the possibility that this will be the pivotal merger deal that, in collapsing, will spook the markets.

I've lined up three articles for you, one from Barron's, one from Forbes and one from TheStreet.com. One says the deal might not go through, that the Bancrofts might round up another bidder.

I disagree with this line of thought. Dow Jones (DJ Quote) is simply not a viable long-term business at this point, so the only buyer would have to be doing it out of vanity, harnessed to the ability to leverage Dow Jones and use it as a loss leader.

I don't think any of these other companies can -- and I think our own TheStreet.com, in mentioning Warren Buffet's historic love affair with newspapers, neglects the Oracle of Omaha's more recent history, which includes lines about how every time he goes to funeral, he knows newspapers have lost another reader that won't be replaced.

The Stock of the Year

One final item on this gloriously cloudy Monday. The Business Press Maven picked J Crew (JCG Quote) as his Stock of the Year and owns it in his children's woefully underfunded (but a bit less so now, considering the stock's surge) college funds. Millard Drexler, who built Gap, is now building its successor.

When I picked J Crew as my stock of the year, part of my stated reasoning was Drexler's comparatively straight way with words, a rare quality indeed, so if you have the time and inclination, you might want to listen to the conference call.

Please note that due to factors including low market capitalization and/or insufficient public float, we consider Bally Total Fitness to be a small-cap stock. You should be aware that such stocks are subject to more risk than stocks of larger companies, including greater volatility, lower liquidity and less publicly available information, and that postings such as this one can have an effect on their stock prices.