Bloomberg among potential bidders for BusinessWeek

Bloomberg, the financial news agency, is considering a bid for BusinessWeek, the business magazine published by McGraw-Hill.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the interest shown by Bloomberg in buying BusinessWeek has “further crowded” the field of potential bidders, and also indicates Bloomberg’s intentions in continuing to expand beyond its core business of providing financial data, news, and analytics to professionals.

Quoting “people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reported that the other potential bidders for BusinessWeek included Bruce Wasserstein, the chief executive of the investment bank Lazard Limited and who owns the magazine TheDeal and New York Magazine; ZelnickMedia; Joe Mansueto, founder of Morningstar; and private equity firms Platinum Equity, Warburg Pincus, and OpenGate Capital.

The bids for BusinessWeek will take place on September 15, 2009.

In July 2009, the United States-based publisher McGraw-Hill, which owns BusinessWeek, had said that it was “putting on the block” its financial magazine and also “exploring strategic options” for the magazine.

BusinessWeek, founded in 1929, has a circulation of 936,000 copies in the United States. The magazine’s main competitors in the national business magazine-class are Forbes and Fortune, both of which are published bi-weekly.

As in the case of other United States-based newspapers and magazines, BusinessWeek has been plagued by a sharp decline in revenues from print-advertising, shrinking circulation as well as the shifting of a large number of readers to free online news.

The website of BusinessWeek says that the magazine has 155 editorial employees at its headquarters in New York, 19 correspondents in news bureaus across the United States, and 14 international correspondents in 10 news bureaus.

On the website of BusinessWeek, Jon Fine, the magazine’s media columnist, wrote that Bloomberg had earlier considered buying BusinessWeek but then dropped the idea. It is not clear, Fine added, as to why Bloomberg is once again trying to bid for BusinessWeek.

Jon Fine also wrote on the website that the executives of BusinessWeek and Bloomberg will meet next week in order to obtain “more information on the operations” of BusinessWeek.

McGraw-Hill owns, besides the BusinessWeek magazine, the credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education, and the market research company J D Power and Associates.  McGraw-Hill says it had sales worth $6.4 billion in 2008.

Bloomberg, the financial news agency, is considering a bid for BusinessWeek, the business magazine published by McGraw-Hill.

According to a report in The Wall Street Journal, the interest shown by Bloomberg in buying BusinessWeek has “further crowded” the field of potential bidders, and also indicates Bloomberg’s intentions in continuing to expand beyond its core business of providing financial data, news, and analytics to professionals.

Quoting “people familiar with the matter,” The Wall Street Journal reported that the other potential bidders for BusinessWeek included Bruce Wasserstein, the chief executive of the investment bank Lazard Limited and who owns the magazine TheDeal and New York Magazine; ZelnickMedia; Joe Mansueto, founder of Morningstar; and private equity firms Platinum Equity, Warburg Pincus, and OpenGate Capital.

The bids for BusinessWeek will take place on September 15, 2009.

In July 2009, the United States-based publisher McGraw-Hill, which owns BusinessWeek, had said that it was “putting on the block” its financial magazine and also “exploring strategic options” for the magazine.

BusinessWeek, founded in 1929, has a circulation of 936,000 copies in the United States. The magazine’s main competitors in the national business magazine-class are Forbes and Fortune, both of which are published bi-weekly.

As in the case of other United States-based newspapers and magazines, BusinessWeek has been plagued by a sharp decline in revenues from print-advertising, shrinking circulation as well as the shifting of a large number of readers to free online news.

The BusinessWeek website says that the magazine has 155 editorial employees at its headquarters in New York, 19 correspondents in news bureaus across the United States, and 14 international correspondents in 10 news bureaus.

Jon Fine, the magazine’s media columnist, has written on the website of BusinessWeek,  that Bloomberg had earlier considered buying BusinessWeek but then dropped the idea. It is not clear, Fine added, as to why Bloomberg is once again trying to bid for BusinessWeek.

Jon Fine also wrote on the website that the executives of BusinessWeek and Bloomberg will meet next week in order to obtain “more information on the operations” of BusinessWeek.

McGraw-Hill owns, besides the BusinessWeek magazine, the credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education, and the market research company J D Power and Associates.

McGraw-Hill says it had sales worth $6.4 billion in 2008.