Felix Salmon of Fusion argues that the New York Times Co. should acquire Bloomberg because it would solve Mike Bloomberg’s issue of what to do with his company.
Salmon writes, “The New York Times Company could issue another 2.5 billion Class A shares (since any company can issue as many shares as it wants), and use those shares to buy Bloomberg LP. Then, to sweeten the deal, it could issue a million new Class B shares, and give those shares to Mike Bloomberg personally.
“Bloomberg LP would then become by far the biggest part of the New York Times Company, and the eponymous founder would become, by far, its biggest shareholder, with about 83% of the Class A shares and 55% of the Class B shares. In doing so, he would essentially have achieved his decades-long dream of buying the New York Times. (The Sulzbergers, by contrast, would own about 0.6% of the Class A shares, and the other 45% of the Class B shares.)
“The exact breakdown of Class B share ownership would be subject to detailed negotiation, of course. But it’s easy to imagine that Arthur Sulzberger might remain chairman of the vastly-expanded New York Times Company. The deal could be structured so that the Ochs-Sulzberger family would not only become much richer, but could also credibly claim that they continued to own the New York Times. (After all, they have had only a minority economic interest for many years already.)
“Once the acquisition closed, Mike Bloomberg would find it much easier to give away his wealth.”
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