Bloomberg Should Have Rethought Articles on China, Chairman Says

The chairman of Bloomberg L.P. waved a white flag over news coverage on China – and suggested that investigative journalism is inappropriate for a company that sells expensive business terminals. Peter T. Grauer’s comment as reported in the New York Times – “Our approach is pretty much to tune out all the news about weaknesses in the emerging markets” – implies that the company can sell a product or report news, but not do both. “Bloomberg, the financial data and news company, relies on sales of its terminals, which are ubiquitous on bankers’ desks around the world, for around 82 percent of its $8.5 billion in revenue,” reports Neil Gough for the New York Times. “But sales of those terminals in China declined sharply after the company published an article in June 2012 on the family wealth of Xi Jinping, at that time the incoming Communist Party chief.” The China market, second largest in the world, represents less than 1 percent of the company’s sales. Contrary to Grauer’s suggestion, reports on political-business connections in emerging markets are useful for investors. – YaleGlobal