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It appears Bloomberg LP will buy the recession-battered BusinessWeek.
Bloomberg -- a financial news and data company founded by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg -- won the bid over other competitors that included Thomson Reuters and ZelnickMedia, the New York Times reports.
The 80-year-old BusinessWeek, which is currently owned by McGraw-Hill Cos., employs 400 people, but industry watchers are expecting layoffs.
However, "reports of a planned scorched earth campaign are overblown," BusinessWeek reported today.
Bloomberg's cash offer is reportedly between $2 million and $5 million. The company also agreed to take on some of BusinessWeek's liabilities.
If the deal closes, it will mark a significant departure from Bloomberg's longtime "build, don't buy" ethos.
Since its 1986 inception, Bloomberg's bread-and-butter business has been its signature data terminals used by financial companies. But in 1990 the company launched a news service. Bloomberg News now employs around 2,000 people.
"We are uniquely positioned to preserve and build the market presence of BusinessWeek," Norman Pearlstine, Bloomberg chief content officer, told BusinessWeek. "Our shared values and complementary resources give us the editorial and technological expertise, data, analysis and depth of reporting to create a new model for the business weekly."
BusinessWeek was especially hard hit by the recession, losing $43 million last year alone.