The company was founded by Neil Hirsch and it became a major provider of market data through the 1970s and 1980s. The company was bought by Dow Jones & Company in 1990 but the hedonistic lifestyle of its founders and senior manager clashed with the strait-laced culture of Dow Jones & Company causing issues within Dow Jones. Dow Jones' aim was to use Telerate to compete against market dominant Reuters. However, Dow Jones lost focus and the business was eventually consigned to the backwater of the business. It was sold a number of times and renamed Bridge Telerate and later Moneyline Telerate.