As per the media reports, a bid for BusinessWeek magazine is being considered by Bloomberg LP, as the deadline for offers draws nearer.

Sources 'in the know' specified that the interest expressed by Bloomberg in BusinessWeek clearly indicates the financial-information provider's ongoing development beyond its core business.

It was specified by McGraw-Hill Cos., owner of BusinessWeek, in July that the magazine is being put on the block. Following this, McGraw-Hill and its investment bank, Evercore Partners Inc, held talks with many parties.

The sources claimed that interest was shown by Bruce Wasserstein, chief executive of investment bank Lazard Ltd., and the private-equity firms OpenGate Capital and Platinum Equity LLC. They continued that the next week will witness bids for the magazine.

"Bloomberg's news operation, with has more than 2,000 employees, has served mostly to feed Bloomberg Professional service, a subscription product that provides financial data, analytics and news geared to financial-services professionals," informed the sources.

It should be noted though that Bloomberg has tried to widen its reach to consumers in the past two years, since job cuts by Wall Street curbed the demand for its core product.

"The company has hired Time Inc. and Wall Street Journal veteran Norman Pearlstine to look for ways to capitalize on its media assets and has recruited former NBC News president Andrew Lack to run the company's TV, radio and Web units," said the sources.