Dow Jones Industrial Average for sale?

Dennis Berman and Jeffrey McCracken of the Wall Street Journal report that the papers new parent company, which is also the owner of Dow Jones, the newswire and stock indexing service, News Corporation are actively shopping the index side of the business to potential buyers.  Any sale of the unit, which creates and licenses indexes of financial products, would include the world famous, and iconic Dow Jones Industrial Average, the leading indicator of stock market performance on the New York Stock Exchange.

Goldman Sachs are overseeing the shopping exercise and have declined to comment on the matter, as has Dow Jones.

The indexes unit is a stable and profitable part of the Dow Jones setup, however the rest of the company has suffered a significant downturn in revenues across its remaining assets, forcing its new owners, News Corporation to write down $2.8billion of the value of Dow Jones earlier this year.