Business media empire Bloomberg LP acquired BusinessWeek from McGraw-Hill Cos. (NYSE:MHP). Terms of the sale were not disclosed, but BusinessWeek is reporting according to sources that Bloomberg paid between $2 million and $5 million including the assumption of debt that would include severance payments. The magazine had been on the auction block since July when McGraw Hill hired Evercore Partners Inc. to shop the publication. Subscribers to The Deal Pipeline may read more here.
The Evercore team involved with the negotiations included vice chairman Eduardo D. Mestre, senior managing director Jonathan A. Knee and managing director Jason M. Sobol. Meanwhile, Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP led by partners Maurice Lefkort and David Levine represented Bloomberg.
Speculation has run rampant that Bloomberg would downsize the BusinessWeek editorial room once it had purchased the magazine, but now that might not be the case.
"The BusinessWeek acquisition will yield huge benefits for users of the Bloomberg terminal, for our television, online and mobile properties," Daniel L. Doctoroff, president of Bloomberg LP and a former deputy mayor of New York City appointed by Mayor Bloomberg, told BusinessWeek. "We couldn't be more excited. ... We are not buying BusinessWeek to gut it. We are buying it to build it." - Gerald Magpily
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Doctoroff has to do some trimming of the Business Week staff. He's giving good PR speak right now. But the ax will likely fall for more than he admits. And since Bloomberg is a private company they don't publicly have to give layoff numbers.