This Huge Investment Bank Fired Billionaire Mike Bloomberg (And He Never Looked Back)

Michael Bloomberg founded Bloomberg L.P. way back in 1981. His company is currently a global leader in financial data, news, and analytics; with its media outlets — across magazines, websites, and television –- providing real-time information on business and financial markets to hundreds of customers across the world. However, the mega-successful billionaire and former mayor of New York was, at one point, ousted by a company where he had worked for 15 years. Salomon Brothers, one of the biggest investment firms at the time, which later became part of Citigroup, was where Michael Bloomberg worked his first and only full-time job.

The decision to fire Bloomberg did not have much to do with his competence as an employee. It was a step towards restructuring the organization after a merger, not unlike how Kroger is laying off 1000 employees to reorganize itself, although the reason here is falling out of a merger deal. Nonetheless, Bloomberg admits that the firing hurt at the time. "In order to succeed, you must first be willing to fail", Bloomberg had shared in a 2023 LinkedIn post. The setback inspired Bloomberg to start the Bloomberg terminal over the course of the next few months to realize his vision of making financial data and trading news available to traders, CFOs, and CEOs alike — a vision that, he recalls, did not have too many believers at the time of its inception. Fast forward to this day, and more than 350,000 people use the Bloomberg terminal daily, including the likes of investment bankers, hedge fund managers, and government professionals. The company itself has gone on to employ as many as 26,000 people across the globe, offering a range of services apart from the financial ones it is so widely known for.

Bloomberg's firing happened as a result of a merger between his company, Salomon Brothers, and Phibro Corporation. Salomon Brothers, at the time, was one of the biggest investment banking companies on Wall Street, specializing in securities trading. Phibro Corporation, on the other hand, was a commodity trading company that was also publicly traded. Being a private company, Salomon Brothers needed this merger to acquire capital to expand its services. However, one of the consequences of this merger was that Bloomberg was immediately relieved of his services as a partner in the company. After a series of acquisitions and mergers, Salomon Brothers was ultimately merged with Citigroup in 2003.

Out of all the things you should do after getting fired, starting another company is probably the most audacious. Nonetheless, Bloomberg decided to do exactly that. After having received a severance of $10 million, he leveraged the capital to start his own company, Innovative Market Systems (IMS), which went on to become the Bloomberg empire that is turning over $10 billion every year.

Every success springs from the seed of a setback, and Bloomberg's story, being no different, almost entirely stems from this one setback. In an interview given to Fortune, Mike Bloomberg attributes the success of his entire career trajectory — from business to political career and his philanthropic efforts — to the single incident of being fired from Salomon Brothers. The need for adaptability and appreciation for longevity were two crucial lessons that Michael Bloomberg extracted from his firing, which helped him build his $109 billion empire. In an era where companies don't value your loyalty anymore, the average tenure at Bloomberg L.P. is more than seven-and-a-half years, according to the employee stories on the company's website. With a culture of special tenure awards being allotted to employees who have hit specific career milestones like ten, 20, and 30 years, Bloomberg holds special regard for loyalty.

Having said that, Michael Bloomberg also admits that even the best laid plans can go awry and offers a lot of mobility for his employees to adapt as well. For instance, one data analyst in the company recounts experiences of working in diverse teams, like sales and media, apart from having the opportunity to gain first-hand experience on how the data he was crunching was helping clients get value, per the company's website. No wonder the years Michael Bloomberg spent working and learning from his day job had a profound impact on the way the company treats employee motivation.