Education: Johns Hopkins University, Bachelor of Arts / Science, Harvard University, Master of Business Administration
Ranking 17 on Forbes’ 2009 World Billionaires’ List, Michael Bloomberg is one of very few who have managed to increase their fortune and benefit from opportunities while the world is facing a sharp economic downturn. The famous annual list of the world’s richest people was a bit smaller this year than usual. The number of billionaires in the world has dropped from 1,125 last year to only 793 now, the publication reports, and the average net worth among them has fallen 23 percent to a measly $3 billion.
One of the most successful billionaires in the United States during the recession, and the world's biggest increase in wealth in 2009, Michael Bloomberg is an internationally known businessman and politician and also among the world’s richest with a net worth approaching $5 billion. He is president of Bloomberg Financial Markets and was elected mayor of New York City in 2001.
After University Bloomberg advanced through the ranks at Salomon Brothers and became a partner in 1972. Soon after, he was supervising all of Salomon's stock trading, sales and information systems, but in 1981, after a merger, he was fired. He received a $10 million severance payout which he used to start a financial data and communications company called Bloomberg LP which sold financial information terminals to Wall Street firms.
Bloomberg LP has over 165,000 subscribers worldwide. As the business proved its feasibility, the company branched out and in 1990 launched a news service, and then radio, television, Internet, and publishing operations. Bloomberg Financial Markets is a global, multimedia-based distributor of information services, combining news, data and analysis for global financial markets and businesses.
Bloomberg became world's 17th richest man after a transaction put a solid valuation on Bloomberg LP: he borrowed to buy a 20% stake in his company from Merrill Lynch in July for $4.5 billion. Today he owns 88% of the financial data and news outfit he founded in 1982. A known philanthropist, Bloomberg has given away nearly $800 million to charity in the past 5 years.
