Mike Bloomberg is looking to expand his resume as media mogul – by snapping up the New York Times.
The former mayor – who founded financial news agency Bloomberg News in 1990 – told the Grey Lady’s chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. near the end of his tenure that he wanted to buy the struggling paper, New York Magazine reported.
But Sulzberger told him the broadsheet, which reported a loss of $9 million in October fueled by a recent round of layoffs and buyouts, wasn’t for sale.
“Mike has muttered a lot about the Times to a lot of people,” a Bloomberg adviser told the site.
Bloomberg’s longtime political adviser Kevin Sheekey is said to be the driving force behind a potential deal, New York Magazine reported.
During a meeting in summer 2013, Sheekey met with a person close to Sulzberger and said, “We want to buy the company,” according to a source familiar with the conversation.
A Bloomberg source added: “Kevin has long been a vocal enthusiast to Mike about this. Sulzberger needs to go somewhere for money. We know they have a real issue, and Mike is an obvious person he’d turn to.”
Bloomberg has also discussed acquiring the Times with his financial adviser Steven Rattner – a close friend of Sulzberger.
Rattner broke down the Sulzberger family dynamics to workers at Bloomberg LP, the company that oversees Bloomberg News and other offshoots, sources said.
Four of the tight-knit Sulzbergers sit on the Times Company board.
Rattner declined to comment.
Since he’s no longer running the city, Bloomberg has tried to expand his eponymous news agency’s reach, bringing in Economist editor John Micklethwait and hiring ex-Times reporters.
A friend said Bloomberg’s grand plan is to secure a role as media mogul, much like Rupert Murdoch, whom he lunches with every week.
“Before he came back to the company, there was talk he was going to be a combination of Bill Gates and Rupert Murdoch. Now he’s only going to be Murdoch,” the friend told New York Magazine.
“He’s not paying as much attention to the philanthropy. And to have media impact, he’s gotta get something bigger. He can’t just have Bloomberg.”
Camps for both Bloomberg and the Times denied that such talks have happened.
And, in 2012, the 72-year-old businessman-turned-politico swept aside rumors, saying, “Why would I want to buy the Times?”
Bloomberg’s net worth is currently ranked at $35.7 billion, according to Forbes.