Dow Jones Has 66%, Seeks All of Telerate

NEW YORK —  Dow Jones & Co. Inc., moving to consolidate its role in electronic publishing, said today it will acquire the remainder of Telerate Inc., the financial information service already 66% owned by the Wall Street Journal publisher.

Dow Jones said it will pay $576 million, or $18 per share, for Telerate’s 32 million publicly owned shares, a substantial premium over the $15.125 at Wednesday’s close.

But Wall Street traders placed bets that the publishing giant will eventually have to pay even more for the rest of Telerate, and lifted its stock $5 to $20.125.

Dow Jones said it is prepared to meet with Telerate to discuss the proposal, which traders took as a signal that the company may be willing to enhance its offer.

Telerate, founded two decades ago, was a pioneer in the booming business of providing real-time financial information to banks, brokers and corporations, using a global network of video terminals.

Dow Jones, also a major player in electronic news with its computer-based Dow Jones News Retrieval, began building a stake in Telerate in recent years. It has long been expected to buy 100% of Telerate stock at some point, although traders were surprised at the timing.

At present Dow Jones owns about 66.2% of Telerate common shares. Its new bid values all of Telerate at about $1.7 billion.

A Telerate spokesman said Neil Hirsch, Telerate president and chief executive officer, had no comment on the offer.

While Dow Jones has a controlling interest of Telerate, traders believe Telerate may need to compel a higher bid from its majority owner. An arbitrager who requested anonymity said, “The directors have to demand what they consider a fair price for the minority shareholders.”