Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp edged closer to winning control of Dow Jones on Thursday as Pearson and General Electric said they had decided against a counter-bid for the publisher of the Wall Street Journal.

The owner of the Financial Times issued a statement confirming that it had held “exploratory talks with GE about opportunities in business and financial information, including Dow Jones” but had decided not to pursue a combination of GE’s CNBC business channel, the Financial Times Group and Dow Jones.