Michael Bloomberg promises to sell his multibillion-dollar financial-data and media company Bloomberg LP if he becomes president, but a potential buyer for such a deal would require very deep pockets — including stock exchanges, financial consortiums or big tech companies.
Bloomberg LP’s closest peer, Refinitiv (the former data arm of Thomson-Reuters) was acquired by the London Stock Exchange for $27 billion last summer, at about 13 times earnings, and serves as a guide for how Bloomberg LP could be sold, according to a report from Burton-Taylor International Consulting.
Using that same calculation, while also taking into account a slight premium for historical growth, Bloomberg LP could be worth up to $60 billion, the Burton-Taylor report estimates.
Based on the Refinitiv deal, some obvious candidates to buy Bloomberg LP, according to the Wall Street Journal, include big stock exchanges if they can raise enough money.
Another option, in terms of balance sheet strength, would be one of the big tech giants like Microsoft, Amazon or Google parent Alphabet, as they increasingly look to integrate consumers’ financial data into their businesses, according to the Journal.
Another potential buyer could be an even richer billionaire, CCN reports, like Warren Buffet and his team at Berkshire Hathaway: The Oracle of Omaha loves monopolies and has long been searching for “elephant-sized acquisition” to spend his $128 billion cash pile on.
Crucial statistics: Bloomberg, who Forbes estimates has a net worth of $64.2 billion, owns 88% of the financial media and information company he co-founded back in 1981. Bloomberg LP brought in about $10 billion in revenue in 2019.
Source: Forbes.com
