Reuters: How merged companies will work

Canadian media giant Thomson agreed today to buy rival Reuters for £8.7bn (€12.7bn) after securing backing from the body set up to protect Reuters’ editorial independence.

Here are details on the two companies and the proposed new operation.

:: The groups will join forces under the name Thomson-Reuters, headed by Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer.

:: The merged business comprising Thomson Financial and Reuters’ financial and media businesses is to be called Reuters. Thomson’s professional operations, targeting the accounting, legal, scientific and healthcare professions, will be known as Thomson-Reuters Professional.

:: Thomson will own around 53% of the new company, with Reuters set to hold a 24% stake.

:: The enlarged company will have listings on stock exchanges in the UK, US and Canada.

:: Thomson-Reuters will have a combined workforce of around 48,800 and a presence in more than 130 countries.

Reuters:

:: Founded by Paul Julius Reuter in 1851 to transmit stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. He had previously used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels – a service which operated for a year until a gap in the telegraph link was closed.

:: The firm now has 16,800 staff, including 2,400 editorial staff, in 196 offices across 131 countries.

:: Around 10% of the company’s revenues are from journalistic output, with 90% generated by providing political and financial news and data to financial institutions.

:: The firm has 370,000 customers and provides latest news and price data through the Reuters terminal on more than 160 exchanges and OTC (over the counter) markets.

:: Reuters posted revenues of more than £2.5bn (€12.7bn) in 2006, making pre-tax profits of £313m (€456.9m)

:: When the group floated in London and New York in 1984, the Reuters Founders Share Company was established to maintain the “integrity, independence and freedom from bias” of its news service.

Thomson Corporation

:: Thomson has around 32,000 staff in 37 countries.

:: The firm was founded in Canada by Roy Thomson, the grandfather of the present chairman. He bought his first Canadian newspaper in 1934.

:: In 1953 Roy Thomson made his first move into the UK by buying the Scotsman newspaper.

:: The company is the former owner of the Times and Sunday Times newspapers, which it sold to Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation in 1981.

:: Thomson sold the last of its UK newspaper interests in 1995. The company now gains its revenues from providing information in specialist sectors including finance, tax and accountancy, law, healthcare, education and science.

:: It posted revenues of US $6.6bn (€4.87bn) in 2006.