My Bloomberg’s experience

When Mr. Philimore told us in the beginning of our course, that we will visit Bloomberg London’s offices I was really exited by the idea to discover one of the most important actor of the financial markets. Indeed Bloomberg is used by every investment banks in order to get news, statistics and information from companies really fast.
Blommberg is based in 140 countries with 3 main offices which are located in New York, London and Tokyo. 10 000 employees are working today in the company which is quiet impressive for a company that has been created 26 years ago.
Before the visit, I knew Bloomberg from the TV channel, which enables me to analyse information from the market and manage in a better way my portfolio. I knew the existence of the Terminal but I’ve never had the chance to use it.
The visit started with a presentation of the company, a very professional girl from the public relations explained us in details the framework of Bloomberg.

Let me summarize the main departments:

• The sale department is the main activity from the company. The product which is sold is the Terminal, this software which enables you to get any information from all over the world regarding financial markets. Bloomberg has is own network which you can use to reach any CEO of financial company that are members from Bloomberg’s terminal. Another advantage is the simplicity of the system, which permit to send messages or receive information twice fast as if it was a regular message send by Electronic mail. The mission of the sale team is to sale this product to investment banks or other companies which are implied in the stock exchange and could get advantages by using this wonderful tool. The cost of this tool his not has wonderful as his utility, indeed for one computer the cost is $1500 each month. Is that expensive ? Yes I think so, but on the other hand when you know that this software is able to collect and give information two second faster than any other programme it’s getting interesting. Indeed financial markets is all about information and be the first one to know can enable you to earn few millions !!!

• Regarding the media department, we can divided it in 3 parts. First the television with reporters based in 140 different countries, 10 channels in 6 languages. There is also Bloomberg radio, which you can listen on Internet and in Bloomberg’s elevators (LOL). And last the Internet, which convey information and give us a preview of the Terminal. I was surprised to discover that this department generate only 1% of Bloomerg’s turnover.

• The human resources department
They are the one who interview the future employees in order to choose the best one. They are also in charged of the public relations of the company by doing presentation and guide the visitors in the offices and explain them the image that they convey which is based on the “transparency”.

• The analysts are the one who analyse and collect the information in order to give it back in an objective way to Bloomberg’s customers. The objectivity and transparency of information are the main goal for Bloomberg’s analyst. The difference has investment’s banks which are giving you advices and invest your money in financial markets.

At the end of this presentation we were guided around the building in order to discover the spirit of the company and particularly the “transparency”, indeed as you can see there is no walls in order to let the ideas circulate between the employees of the different departments.
To conclude this presentation, I would like to notice that Bloomberg is a great tool to get information on companies quoted on the stock market very fast, as her last financial report. Nevertheless traders from investment banks use it a lot for her objectivity, but the terminal has some limits. Indeed it is known that biggest profits are usually made on information that few peoples knows, and Bloomberg’s provide information that is years after years known by more and more people.