Bloomberg to fall short of revenue targets Bloomberg is falling short of the ambitious revenue growth targets it set in 2010, after a year in which bank job cuts and Europe's rolling debt crisis slowed new subscriptions to its core financial data business. Peter Grauer, chairman, and Dan Doctoroff, chief executive, told staff of the private company last week that their goal of raising revenues to $10bn between July 2013 and June 2014, which would have triggered large bonus payments, no longer looked realistic. Their memorandum, first reported by Capital New York and verified by two people familiar with its contents, confirmed employees" expectations that targeted bonus payments worth 70 per cent of their average annual salaries over a five-year period were slipping out of reach. However, it said for the first time that Bloomberg would pay a smaller special bonus in August 2014. That payment will be worth 10-15 per cent of each employee's annual salaries between January 2009 and December 2013, with the remainder of the 70 per cent bonus to be paid out whenever revenues hit $10bn. Bloomberg is expecting revenue growth of 4.4 per cent this year, lifting turnover from $7.59bn to $7.92bn, the memo said. A spokesman declined to comment. Growth in subscriptions to the financial data terminals that form the core of Bloomberg's business slowed significantly, from more than 13,000 net additions in 2011 to 1,250 in 2012. Bloomberg now has more than 315,000 subscribers in total. The performance is Bloomberg's weakest since 2009, when its installed base of terminals fell by about 2 per cent but revenue reportedly grew by about 3 per cent. It is expected to weigh on annual bonuses, half of which are tied to company performance. Bloomberg's 2012 growth compares favourably with the financial and risk business of Thomson Reuters, Bloomberg's largest competitor, which has reported a 2 per cent decline in revenues for the first nine months of this year as it works to improve Eikon, its newest financial data product. Direct comparisons between the two companies are inexact, but Burton-Taylor, a consultancy that tracks financial data providers, estimated in February that Bloomberg has been gaining market share since the 2007 acquisition that created Thomson Reuters. Bloomberg has sought to diversify its business in recent years, building an enterprise data management business, and broadening its client base to lawyers and lobbyists through Bloomberg Law and Bloomberg Government. It told staff that revenues from outside the terminal business will be up by almost $107m this year, but gave no figure for total non-terminal revenues. It said it would add 375 new positions in 2013 to an employee base of more than 15,000 people.