Bid for Wall Street Journal may hit snag

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A powerful branch of the Bancroft family, which controls Dow Jones & Co. and the Wall Street Journal, is set to vote against selling the company to News Corp., according to a report Friday.

The Bancroft's Denver Trust, which controls 9.1 percent of Dow Jones' (Charts) voting stock, is set to vote against News Corp.'s $60 offer per share, or $5 billion, the Wall Street Journal reported.

The move could put pressure on News Corp. (Charts, Fortune 500) Chairman Rupert Murdoch to increase his offer, the report said.

The outcome of the Bancroft family vote is considered too close to call, though the Denver decision raises doubts about the deal's prospects, the report added.

News Corp bid $5 billion for the company back in May. The $60-a-share offer was a 65 percent premium on the company's stock at the time.

Members of the Bancroft family, who control a majority of voting shares between them, have been reluctant to accept the News Corp. offer due at least partly to Murdoch's reputation for interference in the editorial decisions of his publications and news network.

News Corp. holdings include tabloid newspapers in the United States, England and Australia, along with the more staid Times of London and Fox News, which competes with CNN, a unit of Time Warner (Charts, Fortune 500), which also owns CNNMoney.com.

In July the board of Dow Jones and Murdoch said they reached a tentative deal for sale of the company, but details such as how much free rein Murdoch will have over editorial decisions at the Journal have yet to be worked out.