MUMBAI: Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has completed the $5 billion acquisition of Dow Jones, including its flagship Wall Street Journal.

The takeover will give News Corp. control of a news brand. It opens up opportunities to use Dow Jones' financial news to feed the Murdoch empire's global businesses, including major growth markets like Asia.

The News Corporation also bought ads to appear in newspapers around the world on Friday, including The New York Times, to trumpet the acquisition of Dow Jones. The version appearing in The Times covers three full pages, and begins with the words "Free people/Free markets/Free thinking" - a tweaking of the Journal editorial page's guiding philosophy, "Free markets, free people."

For the first three quarters of 2007, Dow Jones revenue was up 1.8 per cent when adjusted for recent acquisitions to $1.53 billion. Operating income on that basis excluding special items was up 58.3 per cent at the same $104.6 million reported for all of 2006.