Bloomberg has been quietly lobbying EU policymakers in a bid to trip up Symphony, an instant messaging service developed by Goldman Sachs and funded by some of Bloomberg’s biggest customers, report Bjarke Smith-Meyer and Chris Spillane of Politico.
Smith-Meyer and Spillane report, “Bloomberg has faced challengers before, but alternatives like Reuters Messaging, Yahoo! Messenger and Slack were ultimately unable to attract enough traders to pose a serious threat. Symphony could be different, says Taylor, the information industry consultant, as it continues to build partnerships with market data providers.
“‘Symphony is just the latest threat to Bloomberg, albeit with the best chances to get some traction,’ says Aite’s Weiss.
“So far, there are few indications that Bloomberg’s efforts are having the desired effect. Symphony is still growing strong, and there are hints that Bloomberg’s grip on the market may be starting to slip. The company has lost more than 2,000 subscriptions to their terminal services so far this year, and it is struggling to find new users, according to people briefed on the matter.
“Which is not to say that Bloomberg’s lobbying is all for naught. Digging into data deletion will educate financial regulators, says Weiss, and ultimately heighten scrutiny of messaging — on all platforms. ‘[This] a very good thing, especially how all the recently discovered fraud on chat was right under everybody’s noses for years,’ he says. ‘If only they were looking.'”
