What will become of Bloomberg LP, one of the most successful and valuable private companies in history, without its eponymous founder as its C.E.O.? Well, as the internal memorandum from Mike Bloomberg made clear, he’s “not going anywhere.” And it’s not the first time that Bloomberg has stepped aside, as he did during his 12 years as New York City’s mayor, when Dan Doctoroff took a turn at the wheel. This is likely just recognition that, at 81, he’s not as young as he used to be, a point that his fellow billionaire Steve Schwarzman made on CNBC the other day when talking about Joe Biden.
As the largest shareholder in Bloomberg, Mike can be taken at his word that he’s not going anywhere, and that despite installing product chief Vlad Kliatchko as C.E.O., he’ll still be the one making all the big decisions, for as long as he wants to make them. But the question remains: What is to be done with Bloomberg LP? It’s a conundrum that bankers on Wall Street have been grappling with for years, especially since Bloomberg seems to have steadfastly resisted the obvious solution of taking the company public through an I.P.O., and then slowly but surely selling down his stake. I suspect the tax implications of that would be difficult for Mike, making that an inelegant solution. More important, though, I suspect Mike does not want Bloomberg to be a publicly traded company. He obviously likes his privacy, doesn’t need the money, doesn’t feel the need to keep score by seeing how wealthy he is on a daily basis, and probably doesn’t want people to see how profitable his company is.
Another solution, of course, would be to sell the company for stock, allowing him to defer taxes on his considerable gains, potentially forever. But what’s Bloomberg LP worth? Or more to the point, what would it take for it to be bought in a M&A deal? I have not seen the company’s financial statements, but I’ve got to believe it would take upwards of $100 billion these days to get Mike to part with the company. Not many companies can afford to buy a $100 billion company, especially for stock. But I can think of a few that would potentially want, and pay up for, Bloomberg LP. There are quasi-competitors, like S&P Global Inc (market value $120 billion) or Thomson Reuters Corp. (market value $58 billion), that would love to get their hands on Bloomberg, but it’s simply too big for either of those two, and there’s no way Mike would do those deals. Would Microsoft (market value $2.4 trillion) or Amazon (market value $1.4 trillion) want Bloomberg? I could certainly see that. But, again, not sure Mike would sell to Amazon.
