any digs on him?
Michael Bloomberg was born at St. Elizabeth's Hospital, in the Brighton neighborhood of Boston, on February 14, 1942.[4] Bloomberg's family is Jewish. Bloomberg's father, William Henry Bloomberg (1906–1963), was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, and worked as an accountant for a dairy company. He was the son of Alexander "Elick" Bloomberg, an immigrant from Russia.[5] The Bloomberg Center at the Harvard Business School was named in his honor.[6] His mother, Charlotte (Rubens) Bloomberg (January 2, 1909 – June 19, 2011) was a native of Jersey City, New Jersey.[7]
His maternal grandfather, Max Rubens, was an immigrant from present-day Belarus, east of the Iron Curtain.[8][9]
The family lived in Allston, Massachusetts, until Bloomberg was two years old, when they moved to Brookline for the next two years, finally settling in Medford, a Boston suburb, where he lived until after he graduated from college.[10]
Bloomberg is an Eagle Scout.[11][12]
Bloomberg attended Johns Hopkins University, where he joined the fraternity Phi Kappa Psi. In 1962, as a sophomore, he constructed the school's mascot, the blue jay. He graduated in 1964 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering. In 1966 he graduated from Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration.[13][14]
Business career[edit]
In 1973, Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, a bulge-bracket Wall Street investment bank, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. In 1981, Salomon Brothers was bought[15] by Phibro Corporation, and Bloomberg was laid off from the investment bank.[16] He was given no severance package, but owned $10 million worth of equity as a partner at the firm.
Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. His business plan was based on the realization that Wall Street (and the financial community generally) was willing to pay for high-quality business information, delivered as quickly as possible and in as many usable forms possible, via technology (e.g., graphs of highly specific trends).[17]
In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 22 of the company's Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. The company was renamed Bloomberg L.P. in 1987.[18] By 1990, it had installed 8,000 terminals.[19] Over the years, ancillary products including Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Message, and Bloomberg Tradebook were launched.[20]
As of October 2015, the company had more than 325,000 terminal subscribers worldwide.[21] His company also has a radio network which currently has 1130 WBBR AM in New York City as its flagship station. He left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York City. Bloomberg was replaced as CEO by Lex Fenwick.[22] During Bloomberg's three mayoral terms, the company was led by president Daniel L. Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg.[23]
After completing his final term as the mayor of New York City, Bloomberg spent his first eight months out of office as a full-time philanthropist. In the fall of 2014, he announced that he would return to Bloomberg L.P. as CEO at the end of 2014,[24] succeeding Doctoroff, who had led the company since retiring from the Bloomberg administration in February 2008.[24] Bloomberg remains the CEO of Bloomberg L.P.[25][26]
Bloomberg is a member of Kappa Beta Phi.[27] He wrote an autobiography, with help from Bloomberg News Editor-in-Chief Matthew Winkler, called Bloomberg by Bloomberg.[28]
Wealth[edit]
In March 2009, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $16 billion, a gain of $4.5 billion over the previous year, enjoying the world's biggest increase in wealth in 2009.[29] At that time, there were only four fortunes in the U.S. that were larger (although the Wal-Mart family fortune is split among four people). He had moved from 142nd to 17th in the Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years (March 2007 – March 2009).[30][31] In September 2013, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth as $33 billion and ranked him as the 13th richest person in the world.
In March 2012, Forbes reported Bloomberg's wealth at $22 billion, ranking him 20th in the world and 11th in the United States.[18] In September 2015, his net worth was $43.3 billion, ranking him the 6th richest person in the United States.[32]