News In Brief

Dow Jones group makes offer to buy Des Moines publisher

Dow Jones & Co., which is the publisher of the Wall Street Journal, and four prominent local businessmen made a surprise offer to buy the Des Moines Register & Tribune Company for $112 million, the Iowa company announced Tuesday. The company publishes the Des Moines Register, Iowa's largest newspaper, which has a circulation of 240,000 daily and 400,000 on Sundays.

The offer would give stockholders $100 a share in cash, which is about three times the current trading value. The transaction would end 81 years of control by members of the Cowles family.