A New Era: Business Week is Acquired
Bloomberg is set to acquire Business Week in a deal that combines the best of rapid update (Bloomberg) and print media (Bloomberg). This will effectively end Business Week’s 80 year run.
The interesting part of this whole story, to me, is that Bloomberg is owned by none other than Michael Bloomberg, the billionaire turned mayor of New York City. Terms of the sale announced Tuesday were not disclosed. Citing unnamed people privy to the negotiations, BusinessWeek pegged the acquisition price at $2 million to $5 million in cash.
Bloomberg also would be responsible for paying other costs, such as severance pay to any of the roughly 400 BusinessWeek employees who might be laid off, the magazine’s Web site reported.
Bloomberg LP, a privately held company started by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, expects to take control of BusinessWeek by the end of the year. That ends BusinessWeek’s 80-year run as part of McGraw-Hill Cos., which also owns the Standard & Poor’s credit rating agency.
This acquisition is indicative of the types of mergers and acquisitions that are going to need to happen if some of the older, more established, print media want to remain competitive in an ever-increasing digital market and lifestyle.
Time will tell if more mergers and acquisitions like this one will become the norm in the business world….Stay tuned!
