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How Bloomberg Makes Money: Professional Services, Subscriptions, and Licensing

The Bloomberg terminal remains the core of th🦂isꦚ business information empire

One of the most successful limited partnersh🍒ips in existence, Bloomberg L♏.P. bills itself as “the global business and financial information and news leader.”

Michael Bloomberg, the company's founder and a former mayor of New York City, owns 88% of the company’s stock, making him one of the dozen or so richest men on the planet. The privately held company is believed to have generated about $12.5 billion in revenue in 2023.

Most of that revenue derives from the company's Professional Services division, which began with the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Bloomberg terminals and its software-as-a-service successors, which have become obligatory for almost anyone with an occupation in finance. These services offer comprehensive and vital information to 350,000 paying customers around the world.

Key Takeaways

  • Bloomberg LP is a global media and financial data and analytics conglomerate.
  • The company generates revenue from subscriptions and fees associated with Bloomberg terminals and a variety of other services including Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Business, focused on venture capital, brokerage, and more.
  • The Bloomberg terminal remains the core of the business although the company is better known to the general public for its television, radio, and print businesses.

About Bloomberg L.P.

While most of Bloomberg's money comes from Professional Services, the company is better known to the general public for its Bloomberg News operations.

Bloomberg Television is a 24-hour financial news network that competes with CNBC and the Fox Business Network. Bloomberg News is its subscription-based financial news website. Bloomberg Radio is delivered throughout the day f﷽rom flagship stations in four cities.

Blooꦕmbꦐerg Television also operates regional channels in Asia, Africa, and Europe.

History of Bloomberg

Bloomberg was founded in 1981 as Innovative Market Systems. The central component of the company, then and now, is the Bloomberg terminal, which provides real-time market data and analytics.

Over the years, Bloomberg acquired a variety of competitors across industries, including the venerable BusinessWeek magazine, which it renamed Bloomberg BusinessWeek. It also owns the data company New Eneജrgy Finance and the Bureau of National Affairs, a source of legal, regulatory, and ﷽tax information.

As a privately-held company, details of Bloomberg's financials can be difficult to obtain. Forbes estimates that the company generated about $12.5 billion in revenue in 2023.

Important

Bloomberg founder and former mayor of New York City Michael Bloomberg launched the company in 1981 after receiving a settlement when the firm he worked for, Salomon Brothers, was acquired.

Bloomberg's Business Model

Bloomberg L.P. parlayed its brand recognition into a diverse array of product offeri🀅ngs. Central to the company is the Professional Services wing, which in some years has accounted for close to 90% of its yearly revenue.

The Bloomberg terminal is the information service that generates real-time market and financial information for finance professionals. It's still known as the Bloomberg terminal, although the service's dedicated hardware long ago evolved into a web-based software system that can run on any personal computer.

One of the company's fastest-growing areas is data analytics. This includes a wide variety of products, including Portfolio Management & Analytics products, Real-Time & Trading Data products, and more.

Bloomberg Law is another significant branch of the company. Launched in 2010, Bloomberg Law is a subscription service providing access to real-time legal data for research purposes.𓃲 Bloomberg Government provides a simila𒁃r service for civil service professionals.

Bloomberg's Professional Services Business

Being a Bloomberg Professional Services customer isn’t for the casual investor, given an estimated annual cost of $30,000 for a single subscription.

The Bloomberg terminal isn’t the company’s only subscription service, nor is it the most expensive. Bloomberg Law ﷺand Bloomberg Government sell specialized information for lawyers and those who work in politics, respectively.

Bloomberg's Law Business

Bloomberg Law opened for business in 2010, and its model is unusual in comparison to its established competitors such as LexisNexis. Bloomb𝓡erg Law charges a flat monthly fee rather than a fee per use.

Bloomberg Law subscribers can access news about breaking decisions, find out which judge owns how many shares of which publicly traded company, and learn the implications of the latest changes to the Internal Revenue Code.

Bloomberg's Government Business

Bl🎉oomberg Government keeps track of the status of legislation passing thr𓆏ough Congress. It even provides full transcripts of committee proceedings.

This is, of course, public information but it can take years for the House or Senate to make its reports available. Bloomberg Government will tell you almost instantly. The inefficiency and sclerosis of the legislative process might be tiresome for ordinary voters, but it's a market opportunity for Bloomberg.

Bloomberg's Venture Capital Business

Finally, there is Bloomberg Beta, the limited partnership’s 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:venture capital division.

Appropriately ensconced in Silicon Valley, Bloomber𓆉g Beta was founded in 2013 with $75 million and has put its money into startups including Codeacademy, the online programming tutorial warehouse that claims 50 million users.

According to Bloomberg Beta’s manual, its venture capital operation offers a relatively inexpensive way for Bloomberg to detect startup trends before they become too well-known or expensive. Bloomberg Beta was created to stand on its own merits and turn a profit rather than be bankrolled by the existing Bloomberg businesses.

Bloomberg's Other Businesses

Bloomberg operates a handful of other, smaller concerns, such as its Data Management Serv𝔉ices, which manages and interprets complex data sets for clients both large𒁏 and small.

There’s also Bl♔oomberg Opinion, the editorial counterpart to the Bloomberg News service. Bloomberg Opinion has a roster of columnists whose work is syndicated in various print publications and online.

What Is Michael Bloomberg Doing Now?

Born in 1942, Michael Bloomberg remains the majority owner of Bloomberg L.P. but stepped down as CEO in 2023. He remains active in Bloomberg Philanthropies, which has so far given away about $17.4 billion to non-profit organizations involved in public health, the environment, education, government innovation, and the arts.

Where Does Michael Bloomberg Rank Among the World's Richest People?

Michael Bloomberg ranked 15th on the Forbes list of the world's richest people, at a net worth of $104.7 billion as of September 2024.

Who Are Bloomberg's Main Competitors?

Bloomberg's biggest competitors as providers of real-time data and financial analysis for professional traders include Thomson Reuters Corp., S&P Capital IQ, and Refinitiv Eikon.

Bloomberg has𝕴 a multitude of other competitors in the broad field of financial data, news, and information.

In cable television, Bloomb🐽erg competes against Fox Busines♔s and CNBC.

The Bottom Line

Bloomberg has enjoyed being t꧋he dominant player for most of its existence. That said, the company has not taken it for granted, and in nearly four decades has grown its list of offerings tremendously.

With greater diversification—outside of the Bloomberg termi🐎nal product, and even outside of the world of financial information—comes the increased likelihood that the company will weather future storms.

Newcomers in the finance data analytics field have come and gone, but that's no guarantee of Bloomberg's dominance in the future.

Still, it se꧋ems unlikely that this dominant company is going anywhere anytime soon.

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  1. Forbes. "."

  2. Forbes. "."

  3. Bloomberg. "."

  4. UNC, Center for Innovation and Sustainability in Local Media. "."

  5. Fast Company. "."

  6. University of Oklahoma Libraries. "."

  7. Neugroup. "."

  8. Bloomberg L.P. "."

  9. Bloomberg Philanthropies. "."

  10. Forbes. "."

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