The battle for Dow Jones continues to heat up

Late Friday, Dow Jones & Co (NYSE: DJ) said that Financial Times publisher Pearson Plc (NYSE: PSO) has been trying to find partners to pursue an acquisition of Dow Jones, people familiar with the matter said. Shares of Dow Jones & Co. jumped 3% on the news.

It's amazing what can happen over a weekend.

Today's Wall Street Journal, owned, of course, by Dow Jones, reported that General Electric (NYSE: GE) and Pearson are talking about a joint-bid for Dow Jones that would allow the Dow Jones's controlling Bancroft family to maintain a minority interest. The joint-bid would combine GE's CNBC, the Financial Times and Dow Jones into a privately-held joint venture, owned in three equal parts by the three companies. The potential new company would also control Barron's, half the Economist magazine, MarketWatch.com and interests in various business newspapers around the worldwide

Sound like a business news monopoly? Hum.

Another name recently floated as a potential suitors for Dow Jones was billionaire Ron Burkle, who has teamed with the union representing the employees of Dow Jones, and Philadelphia newspaper executive Brian Tierney. Warren Buffet last month said it was "very, very unlikely" that his Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) would bid for Dow Jones, citing the $5B bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NYSE: NWS).

Wait. Does that mean that the Oracle of Omaha considers News Corp's $5 billion bid too much? Jonathan Berr of BloggingStocks believes that Murdoch wants the Journal so badly that he's willing to pay an "outrageously high price." Peter Cohan, also of BloggingStocks, thinks the GE/Pearson bid could prevail.

Regardless of Mr. Buffet's opinion, the "lamest bidding war ever," as coined by CNNMoney's Paul R. La Monica, has just started to heat up.