Famous Entrepreneurs Information

Michael Bloomberg
Net Worth: $16 billion
Source: Bloomberg LP/U.S.
Age: 67
Marital Status: Divorced, two children

• New York City mayor facing a fiscal crisis as banking chaos destroys Wall Street.

• Lucrative bonuses that came with working on Wall Street fueled spending on apartments, restaurants and shopping in recent years; as bonuses dry up, so does the city's income. Forecasts predict NYC's tax revenues will fall 28%--nearly $7 billion--in 2010 from 2008.

• Law passed in October will allow Bloomberg to run for third term later this year. Approval rating now 52%, down from 71% last summer.

• Becomes one of the world's richest men 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.

• Boston-born son of accountant got engineering degree from Johns Hopkins; M.B.A. from Harvard.

• Became a trader at Salomon Brothers 1970s, quit with $10 million in stock.

• Created financial information services firm Innovative Market Systems to sell financial data, analytic tools to Wall Street.

• Renamed Bloomberg LP in 1987; added news service, magazine, cable network, radio station.

by Luisa Kroll, Matthew Miller, and Tatiana Serafin

Labels: Bloomberg LP, famous entrepreneurs, Michael Bloomberg