Analysts Debate Whether Move Inc. Can Attract More Bidders

Move Inc.'s (NASDAQ: MOVE) plan to be acquired for $950 million or $21 per share begs the question whether other bidders might come forward before the deal closes later this year.

Oppenheimer analyst Jason Helfstein figures that few if any newspaper companies other than News Corp. (NASDAQ: NWS) have extra cash on their balance sheets with which to make a competing bid.

Google Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) could easily afford to jump in, but Helfstein called that unlikely.

Yet Craig-Hallum's Mitchell Bartlett thinks another prospective buyer for Move could emerge. Bartlett boosted his target on Move to $24 per share, from $18.

Move traded recently at $20.96 a share, up 36 percent.

The Australian newspaper reported Tuesday that News Corp. "beat several suitors" in its effort to acquire Move. The Syndey-based newspaper, a News Corp. property, didn't cite any sources.

News Corp., which publishes The Wall Street Journal and the New York Post along with newspapers in Australia and the U.K., was spun off last year from 21st Century Fox with a parting gift of about $2.6 billion in cash.

Roughly $2 billion of that amount is left following News Corp.'s recent acquisition of romance novel publisher Harlequin Books and the social media company Storyful.

Zillow Inc Chief Exceutive Spencer Rascoff told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday that executives had approached Zillow about a possible acquisition but talks broke off more than a year ago.

Zillow unveiled a plan in July to acquire rival Trulia Inc for $3.5 billion. Rascoff thinks the News Corp. deal will help Zillow obtain still-pending antitrust approval for the Trulia deal.