Henry Blodget

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Henry McKelvey Blodget (born 1966) is an American businessman, investor and journalist. He is notable for his former career as an equity research analyst who was senior Internet analyst for CIBC Oppenheimer and the head of the global Internet research team at Merrill Lynch during the dot-com era.<ref name=nyt>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Blodget was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission <ref>Factual allegations as submitted by SEC</ref> and settled the charges. <ref>https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2013/04/08/business-outsider "Business Outsider," New Yorker magazine April 1, 2013</ref> Blodget is the co-founder and former CEO of Business Insider.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Early life and educationEdit

Blodget was born and raised on Manhattan's Upper East Side, the son of a commercial banker. He attended Phillips Exeter Academy and received a Bachelor of Arts degree in history from Yale University, where he was a member of The Society of Orpheus and Bacchus.

After college, he taught English in Japan, then moved to San Francisco to be a writer while supporting himself by giving tennis lessons. He was also a freelance journalist and a proofreader for Harper's Magazine.<ref name=nyt/>

Investment careerEdit

In 1994, Blodget joined the corporate finance training program at Prudential Securities, and, two years later, moved to Oppenheimer & Co. in equity research. In October 1998, he predicted that the common stock of Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) then trading at $240, would be priced at $400 within a year. This was thought highly unlikely at the time; however, just three weeks later Amazon's stock price passed that mark, a gain of 67%.<ref name="The Motley Fool">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> This call received significant media attention. Two months later, Blodget accepted a position at Merrill Lynch, and frequently appeared on CNBC and similar shows.<ref name="The Motley Fool"/><ref name="thestreet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

In early 2000, days before the dot-com bubble burst, Blodget personally invested $700,000 in tech stocks, only to lose most of it in the years that followed.<ref name="disclaimer">"The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual, Part 4" by Blodget, with sidebar</ref> He accepted a buyout offer from Merrill Lynch and left the firm in 2001.<ref name=nyt/> Subsequently, he was charged with civil securities fraud regarding actions taken while at Merrill Lynch.<ref name=fraud/>

Fraud allegation and settlementEdit

In 2003, Blodget was charged with civil securities fraud by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.<ref name=fraud>Factual allegations as submitted by SEC</ref> and settled the charges with a payment of $4 million without admitting or denying the allegations and their underlying facts and findings. He was permanently barred from the securities industry and by the SEC, NASD, and NYSE.<ref name="sec.gov">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The charges arose from actions Blodget took from 1999-2001 while at Merrill Lynch, which included issuing materially misleading research reports on internet companies, and making exaggerated or unwarranted claims about them to customers.

WritingEdit

Following his departure from the financial markets after settling with the SEC, Blodget resumed his career as a financial and economics writer. He was appointed CEO of Cherry Hill Research, a research and consulting firm, and has contributed to Slate, Newsweek International, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes Online, Business 2.0, Euromoney, New York magazine, and The Financial Times.Template:Cn His Slate articles about investing carry a seven-paragraph disclosure of potential conflicts of interest.<ref name="disclaimer" />

In 2007, Blodget co-founded Business Insider (initially known as Silicon Alley Insider) and was its initial CEO and editor-in-chief.<ref name=alleyinsider>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In January 2007, Blodget published The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual: A Consumer's Guide to Intelligent Investing.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

In 2014, Jeffrey Bezos purchased a stake in Business Insider.Template:Cn

In November 2023, Blodget stepped down as CEO of Business Insider.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> He no longer contributes articles to Slate, Newsweek, and New York magazine.Template:Cn