Jeffrey McCracken, one of the Journal‘s rising stars on the mergers and acquisitions beat, is leaving the Journal for Bloomberg, The Observer has learned.
The M&A beat is one of the biggest and most vital franchises at the Journal, and Mr. McCracken, who started on the beat last summer, is leaving just as he was beginning to emerge as a significant player.
The timing of the move is awkward. Dennis Berman, who leads the Deal Journal blog and is one of the paper’s bigger players, is reportedly in talks with CNBC.
If the Journal lost both, well, that’s a significant 1-2 punch for a core area for the paper.
UPDATE (1:38pm): A little more information to report: Before Mr. McCracken joins Bloomberg, he’s going to work with Steve Rattner on writing and reporting Mr. Rattner’s book, Overhaul (our own Max Abelson reported that Mr. Rattner’s book is scheduled for a fall release, and as of a few weeks ago, only a portion of the book had been completed). Once Mr. McCracken gets to Bloomberg, he’ll be leading a team of mergers and acquistions reporters, while continuing to report out stories himself.
