<P> The daily was awarded by the Society for News Design World's Best Designed Newspaper award for 1994 and 1997 . </P> <P> On May 2, 2007, News Corporation made an unsolicited takeover bid for Dow Jones, offering US $60 a share for stock that had been selling for US $33 a share . The Bancroft family, which controlled more than 60% of the voting stock, at first rejected the offer, but later reconsidered its position . </P> <P> Three months later, on August 1, 2007, News Corporation and Dow Jones entered into a definitive merger agreement . The US $5 billion sale added The Wall Street Journal to Rupert Murdoch's news empire, which already included Fox News Channel, financial network unit and London's The Times, and locally within New York, the New York Post, along with Fox flagship station WNYW (Channel 5) and MyNetworkTV flagship WWOR (Channel 9). </P> <P> On December 13, 2007, shareholders representing more than 60 percent of Dow Jones's voting stock approved the company's acquisition by News Corporation . </P>

When did murdoch buy the wall street journal