Times are so tough that even supertanker Bloomberg LLP saw a rare drop of net sales of Bloomberg terminals in November. New orders minus cancellations were -1100 for the month, representing a loss of about 0.4% on the 270,000 installed base (at the end of 2007).
(The number of actual net installations, many of which were sold the month before, rose 300-400 in the month, but the sales number is a leading indicator).
At $1500 per terminal per month, the -1100 equates to a loss of $19.8 million of annual revenue. The company's operating profit is an estimated $1.5 billion.
A Bloomberg source says this is not the first time the company has had a negative sales month, but it is a rare occurrence. It's also hardly surprising: Many of Bloomberg's financial services customers are going belly up.
