The Bloomberg terminals have connected the financial market for decades, a success story with 325,000 of the powerful machines used across the globe. A tiny start-up, supported by amongst others Credit Suisse, is trying to take a share of the U.S. communications giant's market.

Bloomberg is synonymous for screens flash with graphs, an endless library containing all financial data required, backed up by facts and news. It provides the world of finance with all it needs to make trading decisions.

Bloomberg has made its founder, Michael Bloomberg, a rich and famous man, an American businessman who crowned his career as mayor of New York. And now that he is back at his old company, a start-up is trying to challenge him.

Cheaper Chatting

Symphony Communications is a news und chat platform, launched this week. Some say this minnow may become a big fish, because it challenges Bloomberg where it hurts: According to these observers, the most used function of the Bloomberg terminal is the chat function. Just for chatting, the price of a terminal, some 20,000 dollars a year, would seem rather steep.

Symphony is obviously available at a fraction. Chief Executive David Gurle has said that a user will have to pay about 30 dollars a month. The company offered cut price deals to lure customers.

Bank Sponsors

What may make Symphony a real danger to Bloomberg is the fact that the company is backed by a host of banks, including Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan and Credit Suisse.

Much is being written about the fundamental change the world of banking is undergoing. Removing the Bloomberg would surely do just that for the individual working at a financial institute.

The banks who are investing in Symphony will probably also subscribe to the new service. Credit Suisse didn't want to comment when asked by finews.ch. According to earlier comments, the bank is at least testing the messaging system.

Dow Jones Contract

Bloomberg won't be surprised by the competition though. In 2013, it became known that reporters at Bloomberg had had some access to terminals of clients. Matthew Winkler, the head of Bloomberg News, was forced to apologize.

The damage was done however, and shortly after a number of companies from New York's Wall Street, including Blackrock and Morgan Stanley, bought Perzo and renamed it into Symphony.

As Symphony bids to become a real challenger to Bloomberg, it linked up with Dow Jones, a Bloomberg News rival, allowing subscribers free access to articles published by the «Wall Street Journal».