- Title: UK: Thomson in talks to buy Reuters for 17.6 billion U.S. dollars s
- Date: 8th May 2007
- Summary: CLOSE-UP OF REUTERS TICKER SHOWING REUTERS SHARE PRICE (AT 0910 GMT)
- Embargoed: 23rd May 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: Communications,Industry
- Reuters ID: LVA7B7SPJALKR8R62INOXICECIDI
- Story Text: Canada's Thomson Corp is in talks to buy Reuters Group for 8.8 billion pounds (17.6 billion U.S. dollars) to create the world's biggest news and financial data company. The news ticker outside Reuters global headquarters in London on Tuesday (May 8) confirmed that Canada's Thomson Corp was in talks to buy Reuters Group Plc for 8.8 billion pounds (17.6 billion U.S. dollars) to create the world's largest news and financial data company.
Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer would become chief executive of the combined group under the terms of the proposed deal, the two companies said in a joint statement. Reuters investors would get 352-1/2 pence in cash and 0.16 Thomson stock for each share, equivalent to 697 pence a share at Monday's closing prices.
That would be 42 percent above Reuters closing share price on Thursday (May 3), the day before it announced a bid approach. The deal value is based on the number of outstanding Reuters shares.
Reuters shares rose as much as 7 percent to a five-year high of 659 pence in early trading. They stood 3.5 percent up at 9:35 a.m. (0835 GMT). Thomson closed on Monday at 47.23 Canadian dollars, valuing the business at about 30.8 billion Canadian dollars (27.9 billion U.S. dollars).
Thomson, whose publishing interests span law, tax and scientific research, has been building up its financial data business as it looks to tap into booming global markets.
In third place with 11 percent of the world's 12.5 billion U.S. dollar market data business, Thomson would jump to 34 percent with Reuters, putting it just ahead of privately-owned Bloomberg on 33 percent, according to Inside Market Data.
Last week, Rupert Murdoch's News Corp made a 5 billion U.S. dollar bid for Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones & Co Inc., which was rebuffed by Dow Jones' controlling investors.
The dual-listed group would be called Thomson-Reuters and the combined Thomson Financial unit and Reuters financial and media businesses would be called Reuters.
The Thomson family bought its first newspaper in 1934 and built a publishing empire which for a time included London's Times newspaper and Scottish Television.
It branched into other fields, including creating a travel business that still bears its name, before focusing more recently on electronic publishing. It is in talks to sell its education unit, which analysts say could raise about 5 billion U.S. dollars.
Reuters was founded by German-born immigrant Paul Julius Reuter in 1851 when he opened an office to transmit stock market quotes between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable.
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