Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation looks certain to become the new owners of the Dow Jones media and information empire; which includes the news wires service of the same name, famed newspaper the Wall Street Journal and aggregators Factiva.

Since April the media mogul who owns Sky TV and The Times in the UK has been courting the Dow Jones group. According to the group's Wall Street Journal newspaper Dow chief executive Richard F Zannino and representatives from News Corporation agreed terms yesterday. The paper claims the Paul Steiger, managing editor of the Wall Street Journal would be appointed to the board of News Corp. A meeting with the Bancroft family, which controls 64% of voting power at Dow Jones has been scheduled for Thursday.

It's reported that Murdoch is paying the full $5bn (£2.5bn) he offered in April for the US company. Dow Jones bought out the Reuters half to Factiva late last year.

Wall Street Journal journalists report that the Bancroft family is " sharply divided" over the sale to Rupert Murdoch. Family member Leslie Hill has been courting potential buyers including Ron Buckle a supermarket magnate and Christopher Bancroft, a company director who personally accounts for 15% of the company shareholder votes, has been discussing deals with private equity and hedge fund providers in an effort to secure financing to buy enough shares to block the deal.

If the deal is approved News Corp will be a dominant news provider in the US. It already owns Fox News. Here in the UK the organisation owns The Times and Sun daily newspapers , as well as Sky and has had a close relationship with the governing Labour party.

Ownership of Factiva will provide News Corp with a significant improvement to its online presence.