Bill Ackman’s Love For Michael Bloomberg Knows No Bounds

The SPACs continue to spawn at an alarming rate, like an invasive species in a pond choking out the native flora and fauna, or, in this case, the tried-and-true methods of capital raising and going public. There are now so many that some are forced to look to truly desperate corners of the market for a potential deal, such as renewable energy and short-form video. Not so the biggest of their number, however: Bill Ackman’s $4 billion Pershing Square Tontine Holdings remains every bit as ambitious as ever, continue to stalk that elusive mature unicorn. Not only is Ackman not discouraged that his first target, Airbnb, got away, but he’s turned it into an opportunity to finally do something big with his favorite person on earth.

The former mayor of New York City and failed presidential hopeful recently entertained an offer to sell a minority stake in Bloomberg LP — the news agency behind Bloomberg Businessweek magazine and Bloomberg TV — to Ackman’s $5 billion blank-check company, multiple sources said…. It’s unclear whether Bloomberg will move forward with a partial sale, but the billionaire — worth an estimated $55 billion, according to Forbes —has spoken about the plan directly with Ackman, sources said.

Sources say the deal on the table calls for the three-term ex-NYC mayor — who rose to national prominence this year when he sought the Democrat nomination for president — to sell a small personal stake so he can cash out without giving up control of news agency he founded in 1981, of which he owns 88 percent.

Which is good, as it will leave Ackman plenty of time to hold on to one of his other jobs, pitching suburban office parks and McMansions in the desert.

Michael Bloomberg held talks to take his media empire public [Thornton/N.Y. Post]
An Uber Outcast’s Blank-Check Company Goes Public [BloombergQuint]
SPACs Will Have a Tough Time Cleaning Up on Renewables [WSJ]