Anybody with some ties to the world of finance and economics would understand the importance of the website, Bloomberg. The media giant has provided financial news and analysis for decades to millions of its readers worldwide and is one of the leading voices in the world of finance. But the man who put all this together was originally an engineer.
Here is an overview of Michael Bloomberg’s career path and how he became a billionaire from finance media.
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Meet Michael Bloomberg
Michael Bloomberg graduated as an electrical engineer from the John Hopkins University, where he paid his own tuition by working in a parking lot and taking government loans. After his engineering major, he attended Harvard Business School and surprisingly got hired by a Wall Street investment bank, Salomon Brothers, as an intern.
His career in finance started at Salomon Brothers, where he worked hard, gained acclaim on Wall street, and was eventually made a partner in the firm.
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How Bloomberg started ‘Bloomberg’
Michael Bloomberg was fired when Salomon Brothers were acquired in 1981. After receiving a handsome cash payout of $10 million, he decided to start his own company, Bloomberg LP, a few years later.
Although the company had a rough financial start, making mostly losses, Michael kept at it, iterating his plans and finetuning them as the need arose. “You’ll inevitably face problems different from the ones you anticipated. Sometimes you’ll have to ‘zig’ when the blueprint says ‘zag.’ You don’t want a detailed, inflexible plan getting in the way when you have to respond instantly,” he said in a Forbes interview.
Today, Bloomberg employs some 20,000 employees in about 50 countries.
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How rich is Michael Bloomberg?
Michael Bloomberg owns 88% of Bloomberg LP. According to Forbes, his net worth a staggering $59 billion. Ironically, he is not listed on his company’s Bloomberg Billionaire Index.
He has donated more than $5 billion to gun control, climate change, and other causes.
What you should know
Bloomberg LP’s first major moneymaker was the Bloomberg Terminal, a software with several investment tools. Its subscription sold for as high as $20,000 per annum in its hay years. According to Intelligencer, the terminal had over 300,000 subscriptions worldwide. Do the Math!
