Michael Bloomberg is the creator and owner of Bloomberg LP
which is the world’s most important financial news and information
company. He is also the mayor of New York a position for which he was
chosen for three times consecutively.
Bloomberg was born on 14th February 1942 in Medford, Mass. He
attended John Hopkins University and gained his degree of electrical
engineering and put himself through Harvard where he received his Master
of Business Administration. Soon after that he started working at
Salomon Brothers which was a Wall Street investment bank that paid him
$9000 per year. He started by working in the bank vault and gradually
climbed up the success ladder to become a partner at the firm.
After the sale of Salomon Brothers, Bloomberg got a severance package
of 10 million dollars. Using this money Bloomberg founded his own
company called ‘Innovative Market System, a company that dealt with bond
market. The firm’s fate took a turn when Merrill Lynch gave a huge
order of Bloomberg’s MarketMaster terminals and invested $30 million in
the company gaining a 30% of its share. In 1987 the company was renamed
Bloomberg LP. In the next three years it installed more than 8000
terminals. In the years that followed the company’s products grew some
of which are Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Tradebook and Bloomberg Message.
In 1989 Bloomberg purchased back the share that Merrill Lynch had bought
for $200 million making the eight year old company worth $2 billion.
The Bloomberg Terminal gained immense significance as a trader’s tool.
The company was thriving as profits soared. Currently Bloomberg’s
company has spread throughout the world with more than 310,000
subscriptions and over 15000 employees in its offices worldwide.
Michael Bloomberg ran for the mayor’s office first time in 2001. For
that he even changed his party moving from the Democrats to the
Republicans as according to him he stood a better chance of winning as a
Republican candidate. He was re-elected in 2005 and third time in 2009.
He helped to re-build the New York City after the unfortunate 9/11
attacks. During his tenure high school graduation rates have increased,
welfare roles decreased and crime rate has fallen 35%.
In 2012 Michael Bloomberg was ranked number 11 in their Wealthiest People of United States with a net worth of $22 billion. His success has also made it possible for him to be one of the most generous philanthropists. His company has its own philanthropy programs such as education support, literacy, medical research and health, cultural and environmental programs.
Bloomberg has received several honors and awards such as the honorary
degree for Public Service from Tufts University, Doctorate of Humane
Letters from Bard College, an honorary doctorate of laws by University
of Pennsylvania and the ‘Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global
Capital Markets’ from the Yale School of Management. He was recognized
as the 39th most influential person in the world by Time 100 in 2007 and
2008. He published his autobiography named ‘Bloomberg by Bloomberg’ in
1997.
