GE And Pearson Pass On Dow Jones Deal

General Electric Co. said Thursday it has abandoned talks with Financial Times publisher Pearson PLCabout a possible bid for Dow Jones & Co., removing a potential rival to News Corp.'s $5 billion offer for the financial news publisher.

GE said it and London-based Pearson had held exploratory talks about combining GE's CNBC business news cable channel, Pearson's Financial Times newspaper and Dow Jones, which publishes The Wall Street Journal, Barron's and Dow Jones Newswires.

Control of Dow Jones could bolster News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch's plan to launch a financial cable news channel that would competewith NBC Universal's CNBC.