Michael Bloomberg Says Getting Fired Sparked the Birth of His Billion-Dollar Company: 'Setbacks are Only Setbacks If You Allow Them to Be' Bloomberg L.P. is one of the world's primary distributors of financial data.

By Sam Silverman May 15, 2023

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg is opening up on social media about how his company was born in the face of adversity.

The entrepreneur, who goes by "Mike" on LinkedIn, took to the platform on Saturday to share that he started his financial data distribution business just one day after he was fired from the Salomon Brothers investment bank, where he held several positions over the course of his 15 years with the company, according to Fox Business.

Bloomberg started Innovative Market Systems, a financial data distribution company, shortly after he was fired in 1981. (The name was changed to Bloomberg L.P. in 1986.) Not long after the brand's inception, the company released the computer software system, Bloomberg Terminal, which provides real-time financial data market to users.

According to an August 2022 blog post from the company, the Bloomberg Terminal is utilized by 325,000 people around the world to make financial decisions.

"I started my own company, based on an idea nearly everyone thought would fail: making financial information available to people, right on their desktops," he said in his post. "Remember, this was before people had desktops!"

According to Bloomberg's book, Bloomberg by Bloomberg, he was given a $10 million severance package from Salomon Brothers and used $4 million of the funds to develop his company, per Insider Business.

The Bloomberg brand now includes Bloomberg News, TV, and radio. Axios reported that Bloomberg Media was expected to bring in $100 million in consumer subscription revenue in 2021.

What Is Michael Bloomberg's Net Worth?

Michael Bloomberg has an estimated net worth of $94.5 billion, according to Forbes. He owns 88% of his business and is known for donating more than $12.7 billion to philanthropy.

Sam Silverman

Content Strategy Editor

Sam Silverman is a content strategy editor at Entrepreneur Media. She specializes in search engine optimization (SEO), and her work can be found in The US Sun, Nicki Swift, In Touch Weekly, Life & Style and Health. She writes for our news team with a focus on investigating scandals. Her coverage and expertise span from business news, entrepreneurship, technology, and true crime, to the latest in entertainment and TV news. Sam is a graduate of Lehigh University and currently resides in NYC.

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