Bloomberg--or 'No Sale'--is the BusinessWeek Frontrunner

Reuters reports today that two bidders have dropped out of the running to buy BusinessWeek: OpenGate Capital and Mort Zuckerman. This is not good news, at least not for my struggling alma mater.

OpenGate was a slash-and-burn private equity outfit, but Mort Zuckerman was a kind of old-fashioned media mogul-wannabe. Seeing him drop out is troubling.

This puts Bloomberg in a kind of shoo-in position to buy BW. But it also means that if Bloomberg drops out there will be no other serious contenders apart from ZelnickMedia.

ZelnickMedia? Don't they even know how to put spaces between words? Here's something about a recent acquisition of a "direct response television media company" it just bought. I'm only linking to it because it was the second highest link on Google. Hot dog! One heck of an acquisition.

That puts BW in one heck of a pickle. Anyone who has ever tried to sell anything knows that the more bidders, the merrier. Right now, BW is stuck between Bloomberg and Zelnick. Looks to me more like Bloomberg and "no sale."

UPDATE: It now seems that Reuters is partnering with Zelnick. If so, that gives Bloomberg some real competition, and is awfully good news for the struggling magazine.

© 2009 Gary Weiss. All rights reserved.