Bloomberg L.P.

Infobox_Company
company_name = Bloomberg L.P.
company_
company_type = Limited Partnership
foundation = 1981
location = New York City, United States
key_people = Michael Bloomberg, Founder
Peter Grauer, Chairman
Dan Doctoroff, President
Thomas Secunda, CTO
Matthew Winkler, Editor in Chief, News
industry = Financial Services
revenue = profitUS$4.7 billion (2006)
num_employees = 10,000 (February 2008, Bloomberg.com)
homepage = http://www.bloomberg.com Bloomberg L.P. is a financial software services, news and data company. It holds 33% of international market share and is approximately the same size as Thomson Reuters, formed from the merger of its competitors Thomson Financial and Reuters into Thomson Reuters on 17 April 2008. [* [http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/17/business/media/17adco.html Article about Thomson Reuters merger] in The New York Times] . Bloomberg L.P. was founded by Michael Bloomberg (current Mayor of New York City) with the help of Thomas Secunda and other partners (Bloomberg's former coworkers from Salomon Brothers) in 1981 with the help a 20% ownership investment by Merrill Lynch. The company provides financial software tools such as analytics and equity trading platform, data services and news to financial companies and organizations around the world through the Bloomberg Terminal, its core money-generating product. Bloomberg L.P. has grown to include a global news service, including television, radio, the Internet and publications.

Its current headquarters are located at the Bloomberg Tower, 731 Lexington Avenue in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. [* [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/24/realestate/commercial/24tower.html Article about Bloomberg Tower] in The New York Times.]

It was incorporated as a Delaware Limited Partnership (LP) in 1981 and has been in business since 1983. Michael Bloomberg owns 92% of the group. Bloomberg's core business is leasing terminals to subscribers. It also runs Bloomberg Television, a financial TV station, and a business radio station WBBR in New York City. Forbes Magazine estimated, in 2000, Bloomberg's cash flow margins on its $2.3 billion in revenues exceed 35%. Bloomberg reports more than 100,000 users in North America, and another 130,000 in the rest of the world. Its competitors include Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones Newswires, FACTSET and smaller companies such as New York Financial Press. In July 2008, Merrill Lynch agreed to sell its 20% stake in the firm back to Bloomberg, for a reported $4.43 billion, valuing the firm at approximately $22.5 billion [ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/business/17broker.html?ref=business Merrill Sale Would Give a Value to Bloomberg] ] [ http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/17/bloomberg-stays-modest-on-his-162-billion-worth/index.html?hp Bloomberg Stays Modest on His $16.2 Billion Worth ] .

History, services & products

In 1981, Michael Bloomberg was fired from Salomon Brothers, where he was a general partner and given a $10 million severance package. [ [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1997/05/12/226240/index.htm Article about his departure from Salomon] from Fortune Magazine] Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 20 Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. [ [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/16/8404302/index.htm The company, Bloomberg LP, is a prodigious success - April 16, 2007 ] ] [ [http://jobs.nytimes.com/texis/company?compid=43133b7857c1320 The New York Times Job Market ] ] [ [http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/01_17/b3729003.htm BW Online | April 23, 2001 | Table: What Makes Mike Run ] ] In 1986, the company was renamed Bloomberg L.P. and by 1987, 5000 terminals had been installed.Fact|date=June 2008 Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched.

Bloomberg prospered during the boom of the 1980s and 1990s. It expanded internationally, opening offices in Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. In addition to its financial services offerings, Bloomberg launched its news services division in 1990. Bloomberg News (originally known as Bloomberg Business News) has some 2,000 staff in 125 bureaus around the world and is available on the web at www.bloomberg.com. It now provides information to approximately 350 newspapers and magazines worldwide, including The Economist, The New York Times and USA Today.Fact|date=June 2008

In order to run for the position of Mayor of New York which he won against Democrat Mark Green in 2001, Mike Bloomberg gave up his position of CEO at Bloomberg and appointed Lex Fenwick as CEO in his stead.Fact|date=June 2008

Corporate governance

As of March 2001, members of the board of directors of Bloomberg include: Peter Grauer, Arthur Levitt, Jane Bryant Quinn, Frank Savage, and Thomas Secunda. [cite web|author=Hirschkorn, Phil|title=Michael Bloomberg eyes run at New York mayor|url=http://archives.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/03/06/bloomberg.changes/|date=March 6, 2001|publisher=Time Warner, Cable News Network (archives.cnn.com)|accessdate=2007-11-11]

Criticism

The Bloomberg Professional service is priced around $1800 per terminal per month [ [http://about.bloomberg.com/contactus/factsheets/profservice.pdf Mayor Michael R ] ] (excluding exchange fees for live data) for the first terminal sold. Bloomberg has also pushed the introduction of Bloomberg Anywhere, a biometrically authenticated web-access system for Bloomberg Professional. This has forced firms to provide full Bloomberg subscriptions for users who would otherwise have been able to share terminals. The Bloomberg Messaging system has become the standard means of written communication in certain marketsFact|date=June 2008 and the loss of the messaging service and the associated client contact is a significant switching barrier for anybody wishing to use a competing product, thus forcing many market participants to pay for a full Bloomberg subscription just to use the messaging service.The product is noticeably Americocentric. In particular, it is impossible to customise the date format (the American mm/dd format is alien and confusing to most parts of the world).

ee also

*A. M. Best
*Dominion Bond Rating Service
*Fitch Ratings
*Morningstar, Inc.
*Moody's
*Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations
*Thomson Reuters
*Standard & Poor's

Notes

External links

* [http://www.bloomberg.com Bloomberg]
* [http://www.ketupa.net/bloomberg.htm Bloomberg: Overview]
* [http://fdncenter.org/pnd/news/story.jhtml?id=36500027 PND News - New York City Mayor Gave $130 Million to Charity in 2002]
* [http://www.worldlii.org/int/cases/GENDND/2002/1665.html Bloomberg LP v. Triple E Holdings Limited (2002) GENDND 1665 (13 December 2002)]
* [http://www.thevault.com/companies/company_main.jsp?co_page=1&product_id=657&ch_id=306 The Vault, containing a company overview]
* [http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/04/16/8404302/index.htm?postversion=2007040506 Fortune Magazine: Bloomberg LP is a prodigious success]

Television

Bloomberg Television
* [http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/index.html?Intro=intro_tvradio Bloomberg streaming television]

Radio

* [http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/radio/ Bloomberg streaming radio]

On-demand podcasts

* [http://www.bloomberg.com/tvradio/podcast/ Bloomberg downloadable podcasts]