News Corporation is scheduled to meet the Dow Jones chief executive today to finalise details of its $5 billion (£2.45 billion) bid for the owner of The Wall Street Journal, just as a member of the Bancroft family, the holder of a controlling stake in the target company, is attempting to gather enough fire power to scupper the deal.

Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, parent company of The Times and Times Online, will meet Richard Zannino, the chief executive of Dow Jones, to discuss both price, $60 a share, and the terms of the transaction.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Christopher Bancroft, who is a member of the family that controls 64 per cent of Dow Jones's votes and a board director, has been lobbying private equity firms and hedge funds for backing to acquire as many of the voting rights in the company as possible to stop News Corporation's bid for the business.

Mr Bancroft is a partner at Beta Capital Group, a Dallas-based private equity firm.

It is understood that Mr Bancroft is trying to persuade other members of his family to sell him their shares.

Each share owned by a Bancroft carries ten voting rights, which are maintained if the equity is sold to another family member but fall away if they are sold outside.

Mr Bancroft, his niece Elisabeth Goth Chelberg, along with some younger members of the family, control about a third of the voting rights but would need to gather 51 per cent or more to put an obstacle in the way of News Corporation's bid for Dow Jones.

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