An Apple ($AAPL) media event in New York this month? I say they buy Bloomberg!

AllThingsD, still the prime beneficiary of planted Apple leaks, tells us...

According to sources close to the situation, Apple is planning an important — but not large-scale — event to be held in New York at the end of this month that will focus on a media-related announcement.

But, for sure, several sources underscored that the event is not related to an upcoming version of the iPad 3, the next iteration of the popular tablet device that many expect to be available in 2012.

Also unlikely, the rollout of Apple’s large-scale rethinking of the interactive television initiative that it has been working on. While the company is expected to launch a new Apple TV product later in 2012, such an event would almost certainly be held in the heart of the industry in Hollywood or at least in Silicon Valley.

That leaves some kind of advertising or even publishing announcement, which might be the case, since Apple SVP of Internet Software and Services Eddy Cue is reportedly involved. Cue is in charge of a large swath of Apple’s media units, including the iTunes Store, App Store, iBookstore, as well as iAd and its iCloud services.

No iPad, no Apple Telelvision.

Boring! 

So, Apple hands off the news to AllThingsD about a "media event" and suggests it is ad related. Fair enough. iAd has long underperformed and New York City remains the center of the world for advertising and the NYC area has done an excellent job of building an ecosystem of start-ups focused on location-based and recommendation services.

iPhones, iAd, Madison Avenue, Foursquare, et al.

Okay, that's not nothing, even if it still is dull as shit because, let's all be clear, if there's anything more dull than engineering shit its advertising shit.

We do know that the potential for iAd is huge. iPhone is the top selling smartphone, iPhone users are more click-friendly, and iPhone users do more searching than the (much larger) Android user base.

Straightforward.

Only, what if it's something better? Bigger? Balls to the wall cooler?

What if...Apple buys Bloomberg?

I wrote nearly a year and a half ago that (the dearly departed) Steve Jobs should buy Bloomberg.

Imagine how such a massive acquisition would give APpe instant access to the *best financial information and content* in the world. And how every trader and wanna be will switch from expensive Bloomberg terminals to iPads? And how the iPhone then launches an asault on large businesses, including banks, which are loathe to allow any device into their hallowed corrupt halls?

Remember, this is from way back in October 2010 but I believe it remains pertinent:

Consider the possibilities of an Apple - Bloomberg tie-up:

Apple can instantly and probably significantly grow their iPad business. Those Wall Street guys and rich Hong Kong expats and other Bloomberg customers will absolutely want to show their real-time Bloomberg data on their iPad.

And they can begin placing financial data on Macs with those sweet big screens instead of Bloomberg terminals. Even now, banks and other financial institutions can afford the Apple margins. Fact is, Bloomberg's 'closed' terminal model probably won't last forever. Placing 'locked' Bloomberg data on the tightly controlled Apple system may be the perfect answer. Plus, on an Apple device, odds are that in a short period, the many functions of a Bloomberg terminal that are locked away because no one understands how to fully leverage them, will be liberated by Apple UI magicians, making the data and views even more important.

With iPads (and Macs), Bloomberg users will now all want iPhones. Everything high-margin that Apple offers, and more of it!

But wait, it gets better. Because of all the content people will pay for, probably only one thing beats even the highest professional levels of real-time sports video and numbers: financial data. An Apple - Bloomberg partnership could pump out real-time global financial and business data to terminals, tablets, iPhones. Apple's high margin devices coupled with high-margin global content will create, in my view, a sort of splitting wedge that opens up (i.e. destroys) existing gatekeeprers of premium content. The content that Apple wants on its iTunes marketplace. If Mr Christmas Bonus is getting his financial data and Bloomberg video in real-time, on his iPad, he'll be hooked. He'll want that episode of Sopranos on his iPad, now. His wife will demand The Real Housewives of Her City on her Apple TV, and then on her iPhone. All via iTunes.

Bloomberg has captured billions of dollars for a high-margin premium content market. Numbers, video, analysis, real-time. He and his company have aggregated data, sliced it, reviewed it, analyzed it, filmed it, recorded it, packaged it. They are a model for how all content can be created, combined, cut and sold. This belongs on a siimlarly high-margin, best-of-breed device. Combining the two will take Apple into the enterprise, all over the world, and will usher in the Bloomberg model for all premium content. Plus, Apple can make all that Bloomberg offers truly mobile and potentially universally available.