An internet entrepreneur has presented a plan to recapitalise and reinvest in Dow Jones in a last-minute effort to head off a $5bn offer for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

Brad Greenspan, who was an early investor in MySpace, the social networking site later acquired by News Corp, published an open letter to Dow Jones shareholders on Friday that outlined a plan to boost the company’s stock to $100 per share.