A Brief History of the Bloomberg Terminal

Financial markets have long competed on the speed and control of information, and this traces through a lineage from telegraphy and ticker tape to integrated electronic systems. Michael Bloomberg and three former Salomon Brothers colleagues launched Innovative Market Systems in 1981 to sell a single, desk-mounted terminal that combined near‑real‑time data with instant quantitative tools. The Market Master - later renamed the Bloomberg Terminal after the company became Bloomberg LP - ran on a closed network, used a custom “Chiclet” keyboard with color‑coded hot keys, and delivered bond prices, analytics, and scenario tools that traders previously assembled from disparate sources. Merrill Lynch invested $30 million for a 30 percent stake and early exclusivity, and the first 22 terminals appeared in 1982 amid market shifts that made electronic pricing and valuation especially valuable.

The terminal evolved into a full platform: a trackball, multimedia speaker and jacks, multilingual keyboards, biometric logins, and Instant Bloomberg messaging; Bloomberg also built its own news operation in 1990 to guarantee content. The company leased hardware, network access, and services on a subscription basis - about $1,600 per month in 1999 and now roughly $32,000 per year - creating a high‑margin, lock‑in product that reshaped trading desks, standardized workflows, and expanded into a broader media and data empire.