Doing Business in an Era of Globalization

Dow Jones has a section in its latest proxy filing giving the history of its takeover by Rupert Murdoch. But it might be 1957, not 2007, for all that the key individuals seem incapable of so much as placing a phone call to each other if they're not in the same country.

On March 29, 2007, Messrs. Murdoch and Zannino met for breakfast. At the end of the meeting, Mr. Murdoch reiterated his long-standing interest in acquiring Dow Jones... Mr. Murdoch indicated that News Corporation was planning to make its proposal directly to the Dow Jones board of directors and that Mr. Murdoch intended to contact Harvey Golub, an outside director of Dow Jones, to discuss how to do so. Later on March 29, 2007, Mr. Murdoch left a message for Mr. Golub at his office...
Messrs. Zannino and Stern also attempted to contact Mr. Golub by telephone and e-mail, but he was out of the country at the time...
Mr. Golub returned Mr. Murdoch’s call on April 4, 2007 and was informed that Mr. Murdoch was out of the country. On April 11, 2007, Mr. Golub and Mr. Murdoch spoke directly by telephone.

The final merger-agreement press release came out on August 1.