General Electric’s NBC Universal is still considering a counter-bid for Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, after discussions about a joint bid with Microsoft broke down last month.

The industrial conglomerate behind CNBC, the leading business news channel in the United States, said yesterday that it was “always evaluating opportunities” as it decides whether to compete with News Corporation, parent company of The Times, in a bid.

However, GE is also understood to be reluctant to bid alone, not least because it has in the past been cautious about moving into newspapers. It is thought to be casting around for partners in a possible counter-bid to News Corp.

At the beginning of last month, it emerged that News Corp had made a $5 billion bid for Dow Jones. The approach is being considered by the Ban-croft family, which controls Dow Jones. However, the family’s bankers also are trying to sound out if there are viable alternatives.

Over the weekend, it emerged that GE and Microsoft held talks about a joint bid, but that those discussions came to an end a few weeks ago. The two are partners in the cable news venture MSNBC.

However, GE was careful yesterday to indicate that, while the Microsoft tie-up was not progressing, a bid should not be ruled out. It issued a statement saying: “NBC Universal has a successful history of strategic acquisitions and as standard practice is always evaluating opportunities. It’s simply good business.”

Wall Street reacted cautiously, pushing down Dow Jones shares 26 cents to $60.16, just above News Corp’s $60 a share approach, as the market concentrated on the collapse of the Microsoft discussions. Although GE remains in the race, its inability to work with a familiar partner makes it harder to join in a consortium bid.

The media owner is most obviously threatened by News Corp’s $5 billion bid for Dow Jones.

The two companies were partners in developing CNBC, and one of News Corp’s goals is to use Dow Jones to develop the impending Fox Business Channel.

Nevertheless, the incumbent begins with distribution into 92 million American homes, three times the level it believes that News Corp can achieve with the Fox Business Channel.

CNBC also has an exclusive deal that binds Dow Jones into supplying content until 2012. An NBC Universal spokesman said: “We don’t take competition lightly, but we are confident in our market leadership.”

Nevertheless News Corp has been able to build television news brands succesfully in the past. Fox News, founded in 1996, is now more popular with American viewers than MSNBC, launched in the same year, and Time Warner’s longer-established CNN combined.

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