THE Bloomberg financial information group is not for sale and speculation of a takeover by Reed Elsevier is wide of the mark, Bloomberg founder and majority shareholder, Mr Michael Bloomberg, has stated. "It's a non story, we are not going to be taken over for as far out as I can see."
Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday, Mr Bloomberg expressed irritation at the report in the London Times that Reed Elsevier might pay up to $3 billion for Bloomberg. Mr Bloomberg owns 70 per cent of the financial information company and Merrill Lynch owns the rest. "Five years down the road, I hope we are still private and not taken over," he said.
He added that there was no logic to the type of link up with Reed Elsevier suggested in the London Times.
Mr Bloomberg, who was in Dublin to address a Society of Investment Analysts seminar, said the company had 200 screens in operation in Ireland.
"I think it's realistic to aim for 1,000 screens in Ireland within the next couple of years."
On a public flotation of Bloomberg, he said: "A company should only go public if it has to raise money that way. We can borrow as much money as we need, we have already built up a valuable brand name without spending an awful lot of money.
"If you're a public company, you have to answer to an awful lot of people, and you can't move as quickly as if you are private."
Mr Bloomberg, who founded the company 15 years ago after "Salomon Brothers threw me out," has built up Bloomberg to a position where it is challenging the acknowledged giants of the financial information business - Reuter and AP Dow Jones. Bloomberg is still much smaller than the other two companies - 65,000 screens compared to Reuters's 250,000 plus screens and Dow Jones with over 100,000. However, its annual growth of 30 per cent has gradually closed the gap with its two large rivals.
"We have been very lucky, we have competed with two giants who don't react very quickly to changes and challenges. I don't know if we can maintain 30 per cent annual growth indefinitely, but there is no evidence of the market getting saturated and we've only got 10-20 per cent of the potential market."
