Bloomberg L.P. was founded in 1981 by Michael Bloomberg and was originally called Innovative Market Systems.
Michael Bloomberg established Innovative Market Systems after leaving Salomon Brothers. The company developed a computer terminal that delivered financial data, news, analytics, and communications to professionals. Merrill Lynch became an early customer and investor, helping the terminal business gain a foothold on Wall Street.
The company changed its name to Bloomberg L.P. in 1986. Bloomberg Terminals became its signature product, giving financial institutions access to market prices, economic data, research, messaging, and specialized analytical tools. Bloomberg later expanded into news, radio, television, magazines, and government and enterprise data services.
Bloomberg is not a conventional publicly traded company like many of the largest businesses by market capitalization. It is privately held, so it does not have a continuously quoted public market capitalization. It is nevertheless a major financial-information company and is sometimes discussed alongside public market-data firms such as S&P Global, FactSet, and LSEG.