Short answers, pulled from the story.
Bloomberg L.P. was co-founded by Michael Bloomberg in 1981, along with Thomas Secunda, Duncan MacMillan, Charles Zegar, and an early 12% ownership investment by Merrill Lynch. Bloomberg used a $10 million partnership settlement from Salomon Brothers to start the company, originally called Innovative Market Systems.
The Bloomberg Terminal is the company's core product, providing real-time financial data, price quotes, news, financial analytics, and the Bloomberg Messaging Service. It starts at $24,000 per user per year and by 2011 accounted for more than 85 percent of Bloomberg L.P.'s annual revenue.
Bloomberg L.P. is privately held and majority-owned by billionaire Michael Bloomberg. When Merrill Lynch sold its remaining 20 percent stake back to Bloomberg Inc. in 2008 for a reported $4.43 billion, the deal valued the company at approximately $22.5 billion.
Bloomberg L.P. owns Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg Radio (formerly WNEW), Bloomberg Businessweek (formerly BusinessWeek), and Bloomberg Markets magazine. It also operates Bloomberg.com, subscription newsletters, and the social media brand Bloomberg Quicktake.
Bloomberg L.P. has faced multiple lawsuits alleging gender and pregnancy discrimination. A 1997 lawsuit by former employee Sekiko Sakai Garrison alleged sexual harassment and wrongful termination after she disclosed her pregnancy; the company settled out of court in 2000 without admitting wrongdoing. The EEOC filed a class-action suit in 2007 on behalf of more than 80 female employees alleging maternity leave discrimination, which was dismissed in 2011.
Bloomberg L.P. sued the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System to force disclosure of lending records from the 2008 financial crisis bailout. Bloomberg won at trial and the Second Circuit ruled in its favor in March 2010. In March 2011, the Supreme Court let that ruling stand, requiring the Fed to release details of which firms received loans, the amounts borrowed, and the collateral posted.