Bloomberg considering bid for BusinessWeek

Global news service provider Bloomberg is considering a bid for American magazine BusinessWeek, says a media report.

BusinessWeek's staff is spread across different parts of the world including India.

Attributing to people familiar with the matter, The Wall Street Journal said, Bloomberg LP is considering a bid for BusinessWeek magazine as the deadline for offers approaches.

Investment bank Lazard Ltd chief executive Bruce Wasserstein and private-equity firms OpenGate Capital and Platinum Equity LLC have all expressed interest for the bids which are due next week, the report said citing people with knowledge of the situation.

According to the publication, in July, McGraw-Hill Cos, owner of BusinessWeek, said it was putting the magazine on the block. Since then, McGraw-Hill and its investment bank, Evercore Partners Inc, have had discussions with several parties.

The report noted that Bloomberg's interest in BusinessWeek, which further crowds the field of potential bidders, reflects the financial-information provider's continuing expansion beyond its core business.

Bloomberg has also hired Time Inc and Wall Street Journal veteran Norman Pearlstine to look for ways to capitalise on its media assets and has recruited former NBC News president Andrew Lack to run the company's TV, radio and Web units, it added.

The report also pointed out that in June, Bloomberg hired another Time Inc veteran, Michael Dukmejian, to oversee its 15,000-circulation magazine, Bloomberg Markets.

BusinessWeek is among several business publications that have struggled to keep advertisers as 24-hour news outlets have proliferated.

The report said, citing the Publishers Information Bureau, BusinessWeek fell more than 30 per cent from a year earlier exceeding industry-wide declines of 28 per cent and its ad pages shrank by nearly 37 per cent.