SALOMON BROTHERS

In March of 2009 Forbes reported Michael Bloomberg's wealth as $16 billion, meaning he was one of the most successful billionaires in the United States during the recession, and the wealthiest individual in New York City. There are only four fortunes in the USA that are larger (although the Walmart family fortune is split among four people). Bloomberg moved from 142nd to 17th in Forbes list of the world's billionaires in only two years (March 2007 - March 2009). Billionaires 2007.Billionaires 2009.

Bloomberg became a general partner at Salomon Brothers, where he headed equity trading and, later, systems development. In 1981, he was fired from Salomon Brothers and was given a $10 million severance package . Using this money, Bloomberg went on to set up a company named Innovative Market Systems. In 1982, Merrill Lynch became the new company's first customer, installing 20 of the company's Market Master terminals and investing $30 million in the company. The company was rename in 1986. By 1987, it had installed 5,000 terminals.
Within a few years, ancillary products including Bloomberg Tradebook (a trading platform), the

Bloomberg Messaging Service, and the Bloomberg newswire were launched. As of 2009, the company had more than 250,000 terminals worldwide. His company also has a radio network, which currently has its flagship station as 1130 WBBR-AM in New York City. He left the position of CEO to pursue a political career as the mayor of New York. He was replaced as CEO by Lex Fenwick. The company is now led by president Dan Doctoroff, a former deputy mayor under Bloomberg.

As mayor of New York, Bloomberg declines to receive a city salary, accepting remuneration of $1.00 annually for his services. He maintains a public listing in the New York City phone directory, residing not in Gracie Mansion, the official mayor's mansion, but instead at his own home on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, at 17 East 79th Street between Madison and Fifth Avenues. (Bloomberg owns additional homes in Britain and in the British territory of Bermuda.)Bloomberg is, by his own accounts at least, a frequent rider of the New York City Subway, particularly in the commute from his 79th Street home to his office at City Hall. An August 2007 story in The New York Times contradicted this notion, suggesting instead that he often was chauffeured by two New York Police Department-owned SUVs to an express train station to avoid having to change from the local to the express trains on the Lexington Avenue line.He has written an autobiography with help from a ghost writer, called Bloomberg by Bloomberg (1997,