Bloomberg Considers Buying Financial Times

Speculation rampant that venerated paper will soon be available
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 10, 2012 10:05 AM CST
Bloomberg Considers Buying Financial Times
An edition of the Financial Times Deutschland is seen at a newspaper and tobacco shop in Frankfurt, Germany, Nov. 23, 2012. The German edition ceased publication last week.   (AP Photo/Michael Probst)

Michael Bloomberg is doing some serious soul searching about the possibility of buying the Financial Times, sources close to the mayor tell the New York Times. "It's the only paper I'd buy," he allegedly told one associate, and others say that lately he's taken to rattling off circulation and penetration statistics for the paper, and asking why his media behemoth should acquire it. When asked publicly however if he'd buy the paper, the mayor simply quipped, "I buy it every day."

Thompson Reuters is also seen as a potential bidder for the paper. Publicly, the Financial Times isn't even for sale, but speculation is rampant that it will be soon, given that longtime CEO of parent company Pearson, Marjorie Scardino—who once said that the paper would be sold "over my dead body"—is leaving in a matter of weeks, and the Financial Times' CEO is following her out the door in April. Even before that news hit, Bloomberg had commissioned a study into the possibility of buying the Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, or New York Times; the Financial Times was deemed to be the viable option. (More Michael Bloomberg stories.)

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