14 Major Wall Street Firms Have Teamed Up To Buy A Messaging Startup To Kill Bloomberg's

A group of financial firms led by Goldman Sachs are close to buying the instant-messaging startup Perzo Inc., according to a Wall Street Journal report.

They might even announce the acquisition as early as next week.

All together, 14 firms have joined together to find an alternative to Bloomberg's trader chat service.

Among the members are Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Jefferies, Wells Fargo, Morgan Stanley, J. P. Morgan Chase, Bank of America, and others according to the report.

The messaging start up, Perzo Inc., was founded by the former Microsoft and Skype executive David Gurle.

The fact that so many rival financial services companies have all joined together in an effort to buy another messaging service is a strong indicator of the "discomfort [that] some in the industry have with Bloomberg's grip on the messaging service."

The Bloomberg terminals cost $20,000 per year, and banks are looking for cheaper alternatives - especially now that revenue has been "challenged" by low interest rates, according to the report.

Michael Bloomberg certainly came back to helm his company at an interesting time.