Dow Jones firings predicted under Murdoch

CHICAGO, July 17 (UPI) -- News Corp. would likely cut jobs if it buys Dow Jones & Co., intensifying a culture clash between the two media companies, a U.S. consulting firm said Tuesday.

"Culture clashes can be exacerbated by the actions of the acquiring company, particularly when those actions include job cuts," Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. said.

The Chicago outplacement consulting firm observed that culture clashes were widespread in the 2001 AOL-Time Warner merger and the 2002 Compaq-Hewlett Packard merger.

Neither of the mergers "lived up to expectations," Challenger said.

In the 2004 Oracle-PeopleSoft merger the clashes were made worse by Oracle Corp.'s decision to cut 5,000 PeopleSoft jobs.

"Oracle notified workers by Express Mail," Challenger said.

"Cuts can be expected in the News Corp.-Dow Jones merger, as News Corp. seeks to offset its $5 billion purchase," Challenger said.

So far this year, nearly 22,000 merger-related job cuts have been announced, it said.