The Firing That Built Bloomberg’s $15 Billion Financial Empire

In 1982, Innovative Market Solutions introduced the “Market Master” terminal, later renamed the Bloomberg Terminal. It delivered real-time pricing, analytical tools, and secure messaging over a private network, changing how Wall Street handled financial information.

The company had been launched the day after Michael R. Bloomberg was dismissed from Salomon Brothers. After Phibro Corporation acquired the prominent Wall Street investment bank in August 1981, the resulting corporate restructuring quietly eliminated the position of the 39-year-old partner who ran Salomon’s equity trading and information systems. Bloomberg left with a $10 million severance package.

Merrill Lynch became the first major customer for the new terminal, ordering 22 units and investing $30 million for a 30% stake in the young company. Bloomberg LP eventually repurchased that stake. The startup’s partners were Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and Bloomberg.

At Salomon, Bloomberg had spent 15 years moving up from an entry-level clerk who counted securities in the vault for $9,000 a year in 1966. He eventually became a partner, although internal political struggles in the late 1970s shifted him to the firm’s computerized systems. The assignment was widely viewed as a demotion, but it placed him at the emerging intersection of finance and digital technology.

The financial data, software, and media company that followed is now privately held, generates an estimated $15 billion in annual revenue, and anchors the global financial system. Bloomberg retains an 88% ownership stake, contributing to a personal fortune that Forbes estimates at $109.4 billion.

Bloomberg’s experience at Salomon also shaped the design of his company’s workplaces. Bloomberg LP offices span nearly 70 countries and use a famously open layout without private offices or partitions. Employees, regardless of title, work at identical desks, a structure designed to encourage collaboration and prevent the corporate siloing Bloomberg had observed at Salomon Brothers.

The Bloomberg Terminal remains the industry standard. More than 325,000 subscribers use it worldwide, paying upwards of $24,000 annually per unit.

That workplace culture accompanies a workforce of more than 26,000 people globally. Average employee tenure was 7.8 years as of 2024, compared with 3.9 years for U.S. wage and salary workers, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Bloomberg personally marks 10-, 20-, and 30-year milestones by awarding employees commemorative physical pylons.

Salomon Brothers had been one of the most aggressive and profitable investment banks of the late 20th century, known especially for its dominant bond trading desk. After Phibro’s acquisition, Salomon’s leadership decided Bloomberg’s services were no longer required.

“Getting fired drove home a lesson that I’ve carried with me throughout my career in business, government, and philanthropy: Every setback is an opportunity,” Bloomberg said in an interview. “I loved working at Salomon and might have spent my whole career there.”

Bloomberg later served three consecutive terms as the 108th Mayor of New York City, from 2002 to 2013. During that period, he steered the city through the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 financial crisis. Bloomberg Philanthropies, his philanthropic arm, distributes billions of dollars globally to public health, environmental protection, education, and municipal government innovation.

Other pivotal terminations have also altered the course of major industries. Steve Jobs was ousted from Apple in 1985 after a boardroom struggle with CEO John Sculley, then returned a decade later to save the company from near-bankruptcy and launch the iPhone era. Oprah Winfrey was fired early in her career as an evening news co-anchor at Baltimore’s WJZ-TV after being declared “unfit” for television news, prompting her move into daytime talk television. Thomas Edison was repeatedly dismissed from early telegraphy and administrative jobs before his inventions transformed modern industry.

“Did getting fired sting at the time? Sure. The firm had been such an important part of my life for 15 years,” Bloomberg said. “But when you get knocked down, you have to get up and dust yourself off—and move on. I’ve never been one to look back. You can’t change the past, so why dwell on it? Besides, if you never fail, you’re not setting your sights high enough. Life is too short to stick to the bunny slope.”

He has also said that the independent enterprise created opportunities he might otherwise never have had: “If I hadn’t gotten fired, I might never have started Bloomberg, never run for mayor, and never had the chance to give back through Bloomberg Philanthropies, which is working to tackle big challenges around the world.”

Bloomberg added that he never held the dismissal against the people involved. “Getting fired was hard, but I never held it against the people involved, because I had learned so much from them over the 15 years we spent together… I took much more from the job than a paycheck.”