Bloomberg L.P.
Bloomberg L.P. is an American privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and a 12% ownership investment by Merrill Lynch.
Bloomberg L.P. provides financial software tools and enterprise applications such as analytics and an equity trading platform, data services, and news to financial companies and organizations through the Bloomberg Terminal, its core revenue-generating product. Bloomberg L.P. also includes a news agency, a global television network, websites, radio stations, subscription-only newsletters, and two magazines: Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets.
As of 2019, the company has 176 locations and nearly 20,000 employees.
History
In 1981, Salomon Brothers was acquired, and Michael Bloomberg, a general partner, was given a $10million partnership settlement. Bloomberg, having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon, used his $10million partnership buyout to start Innovative Market Systems. Bloomberg developed and built his own computerized system to provide real-time market data, financial calculations and other financial analytics to Wall Street firms. The Market Master terminal, later called the Bloomberg Terminal, was released to market in December 1982. Merrill Lynch became the first customer, purchasing 20 terminals and a 30% equity stake in the company for $30million in exchange for a five-year restriction on marketing the terminal to Merrill Lynch's competitors. Merrill Lynch released IMS from this restriction in 1984.In 1986, the company renamed itself Bloomberg L.P.. Bloomberg launched Bloomberg Business News, later Bloomberg News, in 1990, with Matthew Winkler as editor-in-chief. Bloomberg.com was first established on September 29, 1993, as a financial portal with information on markets, currency conversion, news and events, and Bloomberg Terminal subscriptions.
In late 1996, Bloomberg bought back one-third of Merrill Lynch's 30 percent stake in the company for $200million, valuing the company at $2billion. In 2008, facing losses during the financial crisis, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell its remaining 20 percent stake in the company back to Bloomberg Inc., majority-owned by Michael Bloomberg, for a reported $4.43billion, valuing Bloomberg L.P. at approximately $22.5billion.
Bloomberg L.P. has remained a private company since its founding, the majority of which is owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg. To run for the position of Mayor of New York against Democrat Mark Green in 2001, Bloomberg gave up his position of CEO and appointed Lex Fenwick as CEO in his stead. In 2012, Peter Grauer became the chairman of the company, a role he still holds. In 2008, Fenwick became the CEO of Bloomberg Ventures, a new venture capital division and Daniel Doctoroff, former deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration, was named president and CEO, serving until September 2014. At that point, it was announced that Michael Bloomberg would be taking the reins of his eponymous market data company from Doctoroff, who was chief executive of Bloomberg for the past six years after his term as deputy mayor.
In May 2022, Bloomberg announced it would launch a new venture in the UK, Bloomberg UK, as part of a wider international strategy. Bloomberg UK plans to hire in the region and has launched a standalone website, a weekly video series, a podcast and new event series. In August 2023, Michael Bloomberg announced a series of leadership changes for the company, with Chief Product Officer Vlad Kliatchko assuming the role of CEO and Chief Operating Officer Jean-Paul Zammitt assuming the role of President. He also announced a new board of directors which would be chaired by Mark Carney, taking over from Peter Grauer and that existing board members would move to "Emeritus Status". Mark Carney resigned from his chairmanship shortly before becoming the Prime Minister of Canada.
Senior leadership
List of chairs
- Michael Bloomberg
- Peter Grauer
- Mark Carney
List of chief executives
- Michael Bloomberg
- Alexius "Lex" Fenwick
- Daniel Doctoroff
- Michael Bloomberg
- Vlad Kliatchko
Acquisitions
On March 13, 2023, Bloomberg entered into agreement to acquire Broadway Technology, a provider of high-performance trading systems and fixed income trading solutions.
Bloomberg Radio (formerly WNEW)
In 1992, Bloomberg L.P. purchased New York Radio station WNEW for $13.5million. The station was converted into an all-news format, known as Bloomberg Radio, and the call letters were changed to WBBR.Bloomberg Businessweek (formerly BusinessWeek)
Bloomberg L.P. bought a weekly business magazine, BusinessWeek, from McGraw-Hill in 2009. The company acquired the magazine—which was suffering from declining advertising revenue and limited circulation numbers—to attract general business to its media audience composed primarily of terminal subscribers. Following the acquisition, BusinessWeek was renamed Bloomberg Businessweek. In 2018, Joel Weber was named editor of the magazine.New Energy Finance
In 2009, Bloomberg L.P. purchased New Energy Finance, a data company focused on energy investment and carbon markets research based in the United Kingdom. New Energy Finance was created by Michael Liebreich in 2004, to provide news, data and analysis on carbon and clean energy markets. Bloomberg L.P. acquired the company to become an industry resource for information to support low-carbon energy development. It was renamed to Bloomberg New Energy Finance or BNEF for short. Liebreich continued to lead the company, serving as the chief executive officer until 2014, when he stepped down as CEO but remained involved as chairman of the advisory board.BloombergNEF has expanded its research areas to cover renewable energy, advanced transport, digital industry, innovative materials, sustainability and commodities. BNEF provides research, long-term forecasts, analytical tools and global in-depth analysis covering a wide range of energy and related industries. Analysts covering 6 continents publish more than 700 research reports a year.