How Did Michael Bloomberg Make His Money (Michael Bloomberg Net Worth)

Michael Rubens Bloomberg mostly known as Michael Bloomberg is an American billionaire businessman, politician, philanthropist, and author. He is the majority owner and co-founder of Bloomberg L.P as well as the previous three-term mayor of New York City. Michael Bloomberg is one of the most well-known names in New York City. In the 2020 U.S. presidential election race, Mike Bloomberg has spent more than $400 million on campaign advertisements and become the wealthiest person to ever run for president. So, how did Michael Bloomberg make this fortune, and what’s his net worth?

Michael Bloomberg co-founded and owned 88% of Bloomberg LP, a limited partnership financial information and Media Company. This is the main source of income for Michael Bloomberg. Bloomberg LP is a respected name on Wall Street and it generates revenue worth $10 billion per year. Bloomberg LP revolutionized the financial world with its Bloomberg Terminal and later it also becomes one of the largest financial news outlets in the world. So the success of Bloomberg LP has helped Michael Bloomberg make his fortune and according to Forbes real-time net worth tracker, the net worth of Michael Bloomberg in 2021 is $59 billion.

Early Life And Education Of Michael Bloomberg

Michael Bloomberg was born on February 14, 1942, in Boston, Massachusetts, U.S. His father’s name is William Henry Bloomberg who was a bookkeeper for a dairy company and his mother’s name was Charlotte (née Rubens) Bloomberg. Bloomberg’s family is Jewish, and he is a member of the Temple Emanu-El in Manhattan. At the age of 12, Bloomberg became an Eagle Scout and he graduated from Medford High School in 1960. Then he attended Johns Hopkins University and completed his graduation in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in electrical engineering. Later in 1966, Michael Bloomberg graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration (MBA) degree.

How Michael Bloomberg Made His Money?

Throughout his life, Michael Bloomberg made most of his money from Bloomberg LP. Initially, he started his career at the Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers but he left that company with a $10 million severance package. He used that fund for his new venture, Bloomberg LP. He and his company came into the limelight when he announced that he would be running for president in 2020 as a Democrat and he would also fund his campaign with his own wealth. So, it is quite clear that Michael Bloomberg made his money through Bloomberg LP. Bloomberg LP is a privately held financial, software, data, and media company. Its headquarter is in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. 

The core revenue-generating product of Bloomberg LP is financial software tools and enterprise applications such as analytics and equity trading platform, data services, etc. The Bloomberg Professional Service also includes Bloomberg Terminal that provides news to financial companies and organizations. Moreover, Bloomberg LP also includes a wire service called Bloomberg News and a global television network, called Bloomberg Television. Another source of income for Bloomberg LP is websites, radio stations (Bloomberg Radio), subscription-only newsletters, and two magazines: Bloomberg Businessweek and Bloomberg Markets. The Bloomberg terminal was responsible for more than 85 percent of Bloomberg LP’s annual revenue in 2011.

The price of Bloomberg LP’s financial data vendor’s proprietary computer system starts from $24,000 per user/year and it allows the users to use the Bloomberg Professional service to monitor and analyze real-time financial data, search financial news, obtain price quotes, etc. Moreover, the users will also be able to send electronic messages through the Bloomberg Messaging Service. The Bloomberg terminal become a very popular software and it was featured in the show “The Newsroom” where Sloan Sabbith said – 

“They finally got one for me, a Bloomberg terminal. This is a $24,000 system that gives me instantaneous access to all the financial information in the world”

After, Sloan Sabbith endorsed the Bloomberg terminal; the sale of this software was increased a lot and helped Bloomberg LP make lots of money.

Michael Bloomberg’s Business Career

Michael Bloomberg started his business career in financial services in 1966 at the Wall Street investment bank Salomon Brothers. Initially, his job responsibility was to count bonds and stock endorsements in the bank’s vault. With his dedication, he climbed up the job position and become a partner in 1972 and a general partner in 1976. In 1979, Michael Bloomberg was moved from head of value exchanging and given the responsibility to run the office that executed PC innovation. In 1981, Michael Bloomberg got a $10 million severance package for 15 years at Wall Street firm Salomon Brothers.

Michael Bloomberg used his $10 million severance package to establish an organization called Innovative Market Solutions. This company utilized the most recent data frameworks innovation to collect information on U.S. Depository bond costs. In 1982, Merrill Lynch becomes a significant customer of Michael Bloomberg’s company as well as a financial sponsor. Then, the company of Michael Bloomberg turned into present Bloomberg LP. Currently, Bloomberg LP has workplaces in 100 urban communities around the world. According to Forbes, the fiscal year-end revenue of Bloomberg LP in 2019 was $10.5 billion. In 2009, Bloomberg LP bought BusinessWeek magazine and renamed it Bloomberg BusinessWeek.

Michael Bloomberg’s Political Career         

Michael Bloomberg started his political career as a Democrat. But later he changed his party to the Republican Party to run for chairman of New York City. He won his first term as a Mayor in 2001 just after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack. Then he also won the second term as New York mayor in 2005. He went on to become the third consecutive mayor of New York in 2009 because he adjusted the city’s term limit law. During his time as New York mayor, he used the same data-driven strategy that had profited him in the private area; He applied the same strategy to the regional government. He took environment-friendly approaches to improve the infrastructure of New York City and took steps to change general health restrictions on smoking and Trans fats. Michael Bloomberg the “Stop and Frisk” strategy and continued this strategy even though experts considered it an over-policing of minority networks.

So, Michael Bloomberg had chosen mayor as a Republican and an Independent but surprisingly he races as a Democrat for the USA presidential election in 2020. During his three mayoral runs, he spent $268 million, and for the 2020 election, he spent more than $400 million of his own money on campaign advertisements. Therefore, in terms of political view, Michael Bloomberg is considered financially traditionalist yet socially liberal. In 2016, USA presidential election Michael Bloomberg supported Democratic Party applicant Hillary Clinton. But unfortunately, Hillary Clinton lost the election. In his three terms as New York mayor, Michael Bloomberg tried to change the gun laws, therefore; he established an advocacy group for Gun Safety in 2006 to press for a change of gun laws. Throughout his political career, Michael Bloomberg emphasized clean energy strategies.

List Of Awards Won by Michael Bloomberg

Throughout his career, Michael Bloomberg has won lots of awards. Some of the major awards are – 

1. Yale School of Management’s Award for Distinguished Leadership in Global Capital Markets (2003)

2. Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Ehud Barak (2004)

3. Barnard College’s Barnard Medal of Distinction (2008)

4. Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Leadership for Healthy Communities’ Healthy Communities Leadership Award (2009)

5. Jefferson Awards Foundation’s U.S. Senator John Heinz Award for Greatest Public Service by an Elected or Appointed Official (2010)

6. Genesis Prize for Jewish values in 2013

7. Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2014

Some Famous Quotes Of Michael Bloomberg

Below are 5 famous quotes of Michael Bloomberg – 

“If you look at people, whether in business or government, who haven’t had any moral compass, who has just changed to say whatever they thought the popular thing was, in the end, they’re losers.”

“Whatever you may think of the proposed mosque and community center, lost in the heat of the debate has been a basic question: Should the government attempt to deny private citizens the right to build a house of worship on private property based on their particular religion?”

“Taxes are not good things, but if you want services, somebody’s got to pay for them so they’re a necessary evil.”

“You have to take away some of the tax breaks for the wealthy, and you have to cut back on some entitlements. Because, unless we do all of these things, it just doesn’t work. And what’s good theater and what’s good politics isn’t necessarily good economic policy.”

“You don’t make spending decisions, investment decisions, hiring decisions, or whether-you’re-going-to-look-for-a-job decisions when you don’t know what’s going to happen.”                               

Source: 

https://www.inc.com/geoffrey-james/15-essential-quotes-from-billionaire-mike-bloomberg.html

Final Thoughts

I hope the above information has helped you understand how Michael Bloomberg made his money as well as some other important details about his business and political career. If you have further queries regarding this topic then feel free to leave your question in the comment section. I will get to you soon.

References:

1. https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2019/11/heres-why-mike-bloomberg-is-so-rich.html
2. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-billionaire-michael-bloomberg-made-and-spends-his-fortune-2015-7

Last Updated on February 5, 2022 by