When Business Insider was acquired in 2015 by German publishing conglomerate Axel Springer for $343 million, Henrey Blodget owned an estimated 5-10% of the company, giving him a pre-tax windfall of $17 – $34 million.
Early Life and Education
Henry Blodget was born in 1966 on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. As a youth, he went to Phillips Exeter Academy, a prestigious independent school in New Hampshire. For his higher education, Blodget went to Yale University, from which he earned his bachelor’s degree in history.
Career Beginnings
Following his graduation from Yale, Blodget began his career teaching English in Japan. He later moved to San Francisco, California, where he gave tennis lessons. Blodget also did freelance writing for Harper’s Magazine.
Equity Research and Investment
Shortly after this, Blodget became the head of global Internet research at Merrill Lynch. At Merrill Lynch, he reportedly earned $12 million in a single year. During this time, he began to make regular appearances on CNBC. Just before the dot-com bubble burst in 2000, Blodget invested $700,000 in tech stocks, most of which he ended up losing over the ensuing years. Accepting a buyout from Merrill Lynch, he departed the company in 2001.
Securities Fraud and Consequences
In 2002, New York State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer published incriminating Merrill Lynch emails from Blodget. In the emails, Blodget gave stock assessments that contradicted what had been publicly published. Consequently, he was charged by the US Securities and Exchange Commission in 2003 with civil securities fraud. Blodget reached a settlement with the SEC in which he assented to a permanent ban from any further involvement in the securities industry. Additionally, he paid a $2 million fine as well as a disgorgement of the same amount for a total payment of $4 million. After leaving the securities industry, Blodget returned to writing about finance and economics. He contributed his writing to numerous publications, including Slate, Fortune, the New York Times, Euromoney, and the Financial Times. Blodget also became the CEO of the research and consulting firm Cherry Hill Research.
Business Insider
In 2007, along with Dwight Merriman and Kevin P. Ryan, Blodget became the co-founder, Editor in Chief, and CEO of Silicon Alley Insider. The website eventually morphed into BusinessInsider.com and then simply Insider.com. It is believed that at the time of the sale, Henry Blodget owned 5-10% of BI, giving him a windfall of $17 – $34 million pre-tax.
Books
Blodget continues to write articles for a number of prominent publications, including Newsweek and New York magazine. His writing focuses on such issues as the return-limiting actions of investors. Among his other works, Blodget published a book in 2007 entitled “The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual: A Consumer’s Guide to Intelligent Investing.” He also maintains a technology blog called Silicon Alley Insider, which hosts the writing of various authors.
