Can Bloomberg be knocked off its throne?

John Gapper of The Financial Times writes about the Symphony, the new competitor to the Bloomberg terminal.

Gapper writes, “The biggest obstacle is the buyside — the asset managers and hedge funds at which Bloomberg is entrenched, where a new service is another screen to cram on to a desk. Symphony will appeal to investment banks with thousands of back office employees, but what about hedge funds with only a few?

“It may yet rise up the ranks, spread across the buyside, and knock the king off the throne but that is unlikely. Although Wall Street has fallen on comparatively hard times, it still has deep enough pockets to buy Bloomberg terminals for the elite traders and salespeople who want them.

“Symphony will not kill Bloomberg. But it, or something like it, could make a big impact by being different. That counts as success.”

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