The Wall Street Journal is being sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News International.

Owners Dow Jones are reported to have agreed a $5 billion bid according to sources acting for the board. Negotiations have been completed and the board is confident the terms of the deal will be accepted by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares in Dow Jones, over the next few days. A formal announcement is expected next week.

The Business Online exclusively reports :

Murdoch’s News Corporation will take over America’s most prestigious financial publisher at the price he originally offered on April 17, when he proposed $60 a share when the stock was trading at $36, a 67% premium … The arrangement is a tougher version of the one put in place by the British government when Murdoch bought The Times and The Sunday Times in 1981. Murdoch will have less control over the independent directors at the Journal than he does at Times Newspapers, where they are regarded as weak and ineffectual. But one source, acting for the Bancrofts, admitted privately that the Dow independent panel was only a “fig leaf” to facilitate the sale and that over time Murdoch would get round it.

With Murdoch reportedly ready to do a deal to take over a chunk of Yahoo! in exchange for MySpace, things are getting very interesting down at the billabong.

Update: Wired is reporting a refutation of this story : “An article published on Thebusinessonline.com this morning stating that an agreement in principle has been reached for the sale of Dow Jones & Company to News Corp is incorrect.”

Heads up Robert Scoble.