Bloomberg L.P. is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. It was founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, with the help of Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar,^[7] and a 30% ownership investment by Merrill Lynch.^[8]

Bloomberg L.P. provides financial software tools and enterprise applications such as analytics and equity trading platform, data services, and news to financial companies and organizations through the Bloomberg Terminal (via its Bloomberg Professional Service), its core revenue-generating product.^[9] Bloomberg L.P. also includes a wire service (Bloomberg News), a global television network (Bloomberg Television), websites, radio stations (Bloomberg Radio), subscription-only newsletters, and two magazines: Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets.^[10]

The company has 167 locations and nearly 20,000 employees.^[11][12]

In 1981, Salomon Brothers was acquired, and Michael Bloomberg, a general partner, was given a $10 million partnership settlement.^[13] Bloomberg, having designed in-house computerized financial systems for Salomon, used his $10 million severance cheque to start Innovative Market Systems (IMS).^[14] Bloomberg developed and built his own computerized system to provide real-time market data, financial calculations and other financial analytics to Wall Street firms. In 1983, Merrill Lynch invested $30 million in IMS to help finance the development of "the Bloomberg" terminal computer system and by 1984, IMS was selling machines to all of Merrill Lynch's clients.^[14]

In 1986, the company was renamed Bloomberg L.P., and 5,000 terminals had been installed in subscribers' offices.^[15] Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched. Bloomberg launched its news services division in 1990. 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.^[16]

In late 1996, Bloomberg bought back one-third of Merrill Lynch's 30 percent stake in the company for $200 million, valuing the company at $9 billion. 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.,^[17] majority-owned by Michael Bloomberg,^[18] for a reported $4.43 billion, valuing Bloomberg L.P. at approximately $22.5 billion.^[19][20]

Bloomberg L.P. has remained a private company since its founding; the majority of which is owned by Michael Bloomberg.^[19] 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.^[21] Peter Grauer is the chairman.^[22] In 2008, Fenwick became the CEO of Bloomberg Ventures, a new venture capital division. Daniel Doctoroff, former deputy mayor in the Bloomberg administration, serves as president and CEO.^[23] In September 2014, 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.^[24]

In September 2014, Bloomberg sold its Bloomberg Sports analysis division to the data analysis firm STATS LLC for a fee rumored to be between $15 million and $20 million.^[25]

Since its founding, Bloomberg L.P. has made several acquisitions including the radio station WNEW, BusinessWeek magazine, research company New Energy Finance, the Bureau of National Affairs and the financial software company Bloomberg PolarLake. On July 9, 2014, Bloomberg L.P. acquired RTS Realtime Systems, a global provider of low-latency connectivity and trading support services.^[26]

In 1992, Bloomberg L.P. purchased New York Radio station WNEW for $13.5 million. The station was converted into an all-news format, known as Bloomberg Radio, and the call letters were changed to WBBR.^[27]

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.^[28] Following the acquisition, BusinessWeek was renamed Bloomberg Businessweek. Joel Weber edits the magazine.

In 2010, Bloomberg L.P. acquired Eagle Eye Publishing, a Fairfax, Virginia-based company that publishes data about procurement by the Federal Government. This acquisition became part of Bloomberg Government, which was launched in early 2011.

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.^[29] 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^[30] until 2014, when he stepped down as CEO but remained involved as Chairman of the Advisory Board.^[31]

Bloomberg L.P. purchased Arlington, Virginia-based Bureau of National Affairs in August 2011, for $990 million to bolster its existing Bloomberg Government and Bloomberg Law services.^[32] BNA publishes specialized online and print news and information for professionals in business and government. The company produces more than 350 news publications in topic areas that include corporate law and business, employee benefits, employment and labor law, environment, health and safety, health care, human resources, intellectual property, litigation, and tax and accounting.^[33]

In May 2012, Bloomberg L.P. acquired Dublin-based software provider PolarLake and launched a new enterprise data management service to help companies acquire, manage and distribute data across their organizations.^[34]

On December 16, 2015, it was announced that Barclays had agreed to sell its index business, Barclays Risk Analytics and Index Solutions Ltd (BRAIS), to Bloomberg L.P. for £520 million, or about $787 million.^[35] The company will be renamed Bloomberg Index Services Limited.

In 2011, sales from the Bloomberg Professional Service, also known as the Bloomberg terminal, accounted for more than 85 percent of Bloomberg L.P.'s annual revenue.^[36] The financial data vendor's proprietary computer system, starting at $24,000 per user per year,^[37] allows subscribers to access the Bloomberg Professional service to monitor and analyze real-time financial data, search financial news, obtain price quotes and send electronic messages through the Bloomberg Messaging Service. The Terminal covers both public and private markets globally.^[38]

Bloomberg News was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg and Matthew Winkler in 1990, to deliver financial news reporting to Bloomberg terminal subscribers. In 2000, Bloomberg News included more than 2,300 editors and reporters in 100 countries.^[39] Content produced by Bloomberg News is disseminated through the Bloomberg terminal, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Businessweek, Bloomberg Markets and Bloomberg.com. Since 2015, John Micklethwait has served as editor-in-chief.^[40]

Bloomberg Television, a service of Bloomberg News, is a 24-hour financial news television network. It was introduced in 1994, as a subscription service transmitted on satellite television provider DirecTV, 13 hours a day, 7 days a week.^[41] Soon after, the network entered the cable television market and by 2000, Bloomberg's 24-hour news programming was being aired to 200 million households.^[42] Justin B. Smith serves as CEO of Bloomberg Multimedia Group which includes Bloomberg Radio, Bloomberg Television and online components of Bloomberg's multimedia offerings.^[43]

Bloomberg Markets is a monthly magazine launched in 1992, that provides in-depth coverage of global financial markets for finance professionals.^[44] In 2010, the magazine was redesigned in an effort to update its readership beyond Bloomberg terminal users.^[45] Michael Dukmejian has served as the magazine's publisher since 2009.^[46]

Bloomberg Pursuits was a bimonthly luxury magazine distributed exclusively to Bloomberg terminal users and to newsstands. It ceased publication in 2016. A digital edition and show on Bloomberg Television continue under the same name.^[47]

Bloomberg Entity Exchange is a web-based, centralised and secure platform for buy side firms, sell side firms, corporations and insurance firms, banks or brokers to fulfill Know Your Customer (KYC) compliance requirements. It was launched on May 25, 2016.^[48][49]

Launched in 2011, Bloomberg Government is an online service that provides news and information about politics, along legislative and regulatory coverage.^[50][51]

In 2009, Bloomberg L.P. introduced Bloomberg Law, a subscription service for real-time legal research.^[52] A subscription to the service provides access to law dockets, legal filings, and reports from Bloomberg legal analysts as well as business news and information.^[53]

Bloomberg Opinion, formerly Bloomberg View, is an editorial division of Bloomberg News which launched in May 2011.^[54] The site provides editorial content from columnists, authors and editors about news issues and is available for free on the company's website.^[55] David Shipley, former Op-Ed page editor at The New York Times, serves as Bloomberg Opinion's executive editor.^[56]

Bloomberg Tradebook is an electronic agency brokerage for equity, futures, options and foreign exchange trades.^[57] Its "buyside" services include access to trading algorithms, analytics and marketing insights, while its "sellside" services include connection to electronic trading networks and global trading capabilities.^[58] Bloomberg Tradebook was founded in 1996, as an affiliate of Bloomberg L.P.^[57]

Bloomberg Beta is a venture capital firm capitalized by Bloomberg L.P.^[59] Founded in 2013, the $75 million fund is focused on investments in areas broadly of interest to Bloomberg L.P., and invests purely for financial return. It is headquartered in San Francisco.^[60]

The Bloomberg Innovation Index is an annual ranking of how innovative countries are. It is based on six criteria: research and development, manufacturing, high-tech companies, post-secondary education, research personnel, and patents.^[61][62] Bloomberg uses data from the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, the World Intellectual Property Organization, the United States Patent and Trademark Office, the OECD and UNESCO to compile the ranking.^[63]

Bloomberg has openly licensed its symbology system (Bloomberg Open Symbology, BSYM), and financial data API (Bloomberg Programming API, BLPAPI).^[64]

Bloomberg Live is a series of conferences targeted towards business people.^[65]

TicToc is Bloomberg's social media brand. Originally launched on Twitter, it was expanded to other platforms including Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and is also available on Amazon's Alexa. TicToc will also play at several screens across multiple airports in the United States and Canada. The strength of the team is 70, consisting of editors, producers and social media specialists located across three bureaus in New York, London and Hong Kong.^[66]

Bloomberg New Economy Forum is an invitation-only event for business executives, government officials, and academics. The inaugural event was held in 2018 in Singapore. In 2019, the annual forum will take place in Beijing, China.^[67]

The Bloomberg New Economy Forum Community includes leaders from the public and private sectors from around the world. 2018 participants represented more than $5.36 trillion in market cap and boasted a roster of over 400 delegates from around the world. Forum advisory board members include former U.S. Secretary of State Dr. Henry A. Kissinger, former U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Hank Paulson, Vice Premier of China Zeng Peiyan, Bill Gates, Mukesh Ambani, Janet Yellen, Ursula Burns, Gary Cohn, Orit Gadiesh, Walter Isaacson, Yoriko Kawaguchi, Martin Lau, Jorge Paulo Lemann, Jean Liu, Strive Masiyiwa, and more. Founding partners of the forum included 3M, ADNOC, Dangote, ExxonMobil, FedEx, HSBC, Hyundai, Mastercard, Microsoft, & Softbank.^[68]

Bloomberg L.P.'s headquarters is located in 731 Lexington Avenue (informally known as Bloomberg Tower) in Midtown Manhattan, New York City.^[69] As of 2011, Bloomberg L.P. occupied 900,000 square feet (84,000 m2) of office space at the base of the tower. The company's New York offices also include 400,000 square feet (37,000 m2) located at 120 Park Avenue.^[70] It maintains offices in 167 locations around the world,^[4] including Bloomberg London, its European headquarters.^[71]

The Bloomberg L.P. offices are non-hierarchical – even executives do not have private offices.^[33] All employees sit at identical white desks each topped with a custom-built Bloomberg computer terminal. The office space also includes rows of flat-panel monitors overhead that display news, market data, the weather and Bloomberg customer service statistics.^[72]

Bloomberg L.P.'s Management Committee includes Michael Bloomberg, Peter Grauer, and Thomas Secunda.^[73]

In September 2007, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filed a class-action lawsuit against Bloomberg L.P. on behalf of more than 80 female employees who argued that Bloomberg L.P. engaged in discrimination against women who took maternity leave.^[74] In August 2011, Judge Loretta A. Preska of the Federal District Court in Manhattan dismissed the charges, writing that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission did not present sufficient evidence to support their claim.^[75]

In September 2013, Preska dismissed an EEOC lawsuit on behalf of 29 pregnant employees of Bloomberg L.P.^[76] In addition, she dismissed pregnancy bias claims from five individual plaintiffs, and allowed part of the case from a sixth plaintiff to proceed.^[77]

Bloomberg L.P. brought a lawsuit against the Board of Directors of the Federal Reserve System (Bloomberg L.P. v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System) to force the Fed to share details about its lending programs during the U.S. Government bailout in 2008.^[78] The records documented Federal Reserve loans issued to financial firms and revealed the identities of the firms, the amounts borrowed and the collateral posted in return.^[79] Bloomberg L.P. won at the trial court level.^[80] The Second Circuit Court ruled in favor of Bloomberg L.P. in March 2010, but the case was appealed to the Supreme Court by a group of large U.S. commercial banks in October. In March 2011, the Supreme Court let stand the Second Circuit Court ruling mandating the release of Fed bailout details.^[81]

On October 22, 2008, Bloomberg L.P. applied for a change of name of Bloomberg Ltd, under s.69(1)(b) of the Companies Act 2006. Bloomberg L.P. then amended its name to Bloomberg Finance Three L.P. Bloomberg Ltd was ordered at the Company Names Tribunal on May 11, 2009, to change its name so as to not have a name that would likely interfere, by similarity, with the goodwill of Bloomberg Finance Three L.P. as well as to pay costs.^[82]