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News Corp's hostile $5 billion offer for publisher Dow Jones may spur a bidding war, and Google's name has been invoked alongside other potential bidders.

Google Mentioned As Dow Jones Suitor

If it's a matter of who can afford a ten-figure price tag for Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, why not mention Microsoft as well? Steve Ballmer could put Dow Jones on his corporate AmEx card and have plenty of Microsoft's cash left over for other deals, like the rumored billion-dollar 24/7 Real Media purchase that Microsoft spokespeople are no-commenting about today?

The ultra-reliable Bloomberg reports the magical name of Google has been invoked in the Dow Jones conversation, along with several other financial heavyweights:

News Corp. may have opened the door for other bidders, including General Electric Co., owner of the CNBC news network, Haverty said. Washington Post Co., Gannett Co. and even Google Inc. may be interested, said Michael Chren, managing director of Allegiant Asset Management Co. in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.

If Google were to have an interest, and right now it's just one analyst suggesting it, John Battelle thinks he knows how they would handle its ownership:

They only way this makes any sense (see my rant on buying NBC for more) is for Google to take a public service stance and put the Wall St. Journal in a non profit trust. Now that would be ballsy. It's been done before (The Guardian is in a trust).

Such a trust would ideally insulate the paper from outside influences on its editors and reporters. To see an example of a scenario of interference, the satirical Fake Steve Jobs blog has a very uncomfortable (for the WSJ) depiction of Carl Icahn's possible manipulation of the Journal regarding Motorola.