CME Buys Dow Jones Index Business

CME Group Inc., the parent company of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, has bought a 90 percent stake in Dow Jones & Co.'s financial index business for $607.5 million. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, created by Charles Dow in 1896, will become part of a financial-index business co-owned by CME and Dow Jones, which will hold a 10 percent stake. Dow Jones had been looking to sell its index businesses since last year, but wanted a higher price ($700 million) than CME wanted to pay. It will retain a "key role in the management" of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, reports The Wall Street Journal. The new joint venture will keep the old name, and the deal will close in the first quarter. Since News Corp. bought Dow Jones two years ago, it has shuffled the company's assets, including Stoxx Ltd., which was sold for $309 million.