Mass Media Industry Archives

Bloomberg L.P. – One Of The Most Famous Companies In The Mass Media Industry.

Founded in 1981, Bloomberg L.P. is one of the most renowned media companies based in Manhattan, New York City. The company is famous for offering financial software tools, enterprise applications, and news to various financial organizations. Bloomberg L.P. offers these services to various companies through the Bloomberg Terminal which is the core revenue-generating platform of the company. Currently, the company has established offices in 167 different locations and has nearly 20,000 employees. BloombergL.P. is a private company and there is a limited partnership.

About the Company

In 1981, Michael Bloomberg with help from Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, and Charles Zegar founded Bloomberg L.P. Apart from these four founders, Merrill Lynch invested in the company (12% ownership investment). Bloomberg has multiple services and products that include Bloomberg Terminal, Bloomberg News (wire service), Bloomberg Television (a global television network), Bloomberg Radio, magazines, and newsletters. The revenue generated by Bloomberg has crossed the $10 billion mark (in 2019). The company is currently under the leadership of Michael Bloomberg (co-founder and CEO).

History of Bloomberg L.P.

The major contribution behind establishing Company as an independent company goes to Michael Bloomberg. Back in 1981, when Salomon Brothers, a huge American international bank was acquired, Michael Bloomberg received settlement money of $10 million. Before the acquisition of Salomon Brothers, the bank used Bloomberg as the computerized financial system. The company was designed in-house and when Michael received $10 million he used that money to start Innovative Market Systems (IMS).

Michael decided to develop his own computerized system that will provide real-time market data and various financial analytics to the Wall Street firms. In 1982, Michael released the Market Master Terminal (later known as the Bloomberg Terminal) into the market and Merrill Lynch became its first customer. Merrill Lynch made a deal with the company that on behalf of buying 20 terminals and a 30% equity stake for $30 million Bloomberg won’t be able to market the terminal to any of Merrill Lynch’s competitors for the next five years.

In 1986, the name of the company was changed to Bloomberg L.P. (Limited Partnership) and in the upcoming years launched other products like Bloomberg News and Bloomberg Terminal Subscription. In 1993, Bloomberg.com was first launched to provide information on markets, currency conversion, the latest news, and events in the financial sector. In 1996, the company decided to acquire ⅓ of the stake owned by Merrill Lynch for $200 million. This acquisition valued the company at $2 billion. During the financial crisis, Merrill Lynch decided to sell the remaining stake back to the company and it valued Bloomberg at $22.5 billion approximately.

Since 1981, the company has made several acquisitions ranging from magazines to software companies. In 1992, the company purchased New York Radio Station WNEW for $13.5 million. It was later renamed Bloomberg Radio. In 2009, a weekly business magazine from McGraw-Hill called BusinessWeek. This magazine was relaunched as Bloomberg Businessweek and this acquisition was done to bring general business to the media audiences.

Major Acquisitions

The same year, the company also purchased New Energy Finance, a data company based in the UK. This acquisition was done so that company becomes an industry source with abundant information to support low-carbon energy development. Some of the other companies acquired by Bloomberg are Arlington (Bureau of National Affairs based in Virginia), Dublin-based software company PolarLake, Barclays indices business, and CityLab.

Michael Bloomberg – CEO and Co-Founder

Michael Bloomberg, mostly famous as Mike Bloomberg, is a famous American businessman and politician. He is the co-founder and also the majority owner of the company. Michael went to John Hopkins University as graduated as an electrical engineer in 1964. Later he went to Harvard Business School and acquired his MBA degree. Michael was a general partner at the Salomon Brothers upon acquisition of which led Michael to establish his company. Currently, Mike Bloomberg is among the top 20 billionaires in the Forbes billionaires list.

Annasha

Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more

Vivendi – A Conglomerate that is successfully fostering Entertainment and Cultural Diversity Globally.

Leave a Comment / Founder, Story, Tech Story / By Annasha

Vivendi is a successfully established conglomerate in the mass media industry based in Paris, France. The company is currently pioneering in culture, media, entertainment, and communication by promoting the creations of more diverse groups of talented people. The main business of Vivendi revolves around music, television & camera, video games, and publishing. Vivendi has many different businesses and all of them work together to bring great content to people and reveal undiscovered talents. The founding story of Vivendi dates back to 1853 when an imperial decree of Napoleon III built a company called Compagnie Générale des Eaux (CGE).

The Founding Story of Vivendi

The origin of Vivendi started with the formation of the water company, CGE which after a year was granted a concession for supplying water in Lyon. Gradually the company started expanding and supplied water in many cities. From 1853 to 1976, the company remained exclusively focused on the water sector until Guy Dejouany became the CEO of the company. From the water sector, the company gradually expanded to waste management, energy, transport services, and construction. CGE acquired a series of companies and established the Energy Division of the company called Dalkia in 1998.

The expansion of the company in the media and telecommunication industry started in 1983 when CGE helped to establish Canal+ which was the first pay-TV channel in France. Later, the company acquired Babelsberg Studio and taking advantage of the deregulation of the French telecommunication market, expanded its growth in the media sector. In 1997, Compagnie Générale des Eaux was renamed as Vivendi and sold its property and construction division. After selling off the two divisions, Vivendi went on a spree to merge with companies like Maroc Telecom, Cendant Software, etc. From 1998, the company started launching digital channels in many countries like Poland, Italy, and Spain.

In January 2001, the media sector of Vivendi merged with the Canal+ television network and with the assets of Seagram Company Ltd formed Vivendi Universal SA. After forming the new company, Vivendi Universal acquired MP3.com and an American leading publisher Houghton Mifflin. In order to raise funds, the company decided to sell another two of its businesses.

Mergers and Acquisitions

Vivendi Universal sold off 80 percent of the company’s subsidiaries to General Electric which further formed NBC Universal. It sold stakes of other companies as well like Canal+, StudioCanal, Monaco Telecom, etc. The selling of stakes in these companies took place in 2004 and the company also let go of Babelsberg Studio. In 2005, Canal+ merged with TPS (France’s second-largest Pay-TV provider).

In 2006, the company changed its name from Vivendi Universal to Vivendi. The first partnership after the company renamed its name was Spiralfrog which was to distribute the company’s song online in the US and Canada. In 2007, the company decided to merge its game publishing unit with Activision for $18.8 billion. The deal was closed for almost half the actual figure and Vivendi got a majority stake for the newly merged company.

In the following years, the company acquired Global Village Telecom (a Brazilian phone operator) and Vodafone’s stake in SFR. But soon the company announced a demerger and SFR was spun off. From 2013, the main priority of the company became content and it started collaborating with content industries. We know the power of content marketing in today’s world and Vivendi took a very strategic decision back then. In recent years the company has acquired many companies like Flavorus, Paddington, The Copyrights Group, Editis, etc. Last year, Vivendi announced a deal to buy Prisma media and a 7.6 percent stake in Prisa (a Spanish company).

Vivendi Create Joy

Vivendi Create Joy is a program started in 2008 which supports and initiates training projects to help the sick, troubled, and disadvantaged young people from eleven to twenty-five years old. These projects are currently taking place in France, Great Britain, and Africa. These projects are initiated to help people take up vocational training and build up their professional networks. It is all about finding their talents and helping turn them into their passion.

Arnaud De Puyfontaine – CEO of Vivendi

Arnaud De Puyfontaine is the Chairman of the Management Board and CEO of Vivendi. Arnaud completed his studies at ESCP Europe followed by the Multimedia Institute and finally Harvard Business School. Earlier in his career, he started working as a consultant for Arthur Anderson and in 1990 he became the Executive Director of Le Figaro. Arnaud also served as the Chairman and CEO of Emap France and many other companies. In 2014, Arnaud joined Vivendi and since then he is serving as the CEO of the company.