FT Reports Thomson Cleared for Reuters Tie

An FT report this morning states Thomson Corporation's £7.9bn bid for Reuters has been approved with minimal conditions by regulators on both sides of the Atlantic, paving the way for the creation of a bigger competitor to Bloomberg in financial information. Hemscott reports the merger is expected to complete in the week of April 13.

The article cites David Anderson of Inside Market Data Reference who points out "regulators have focused on the most obvious areas of overlap and it has to be said that overlap was always minimal...The bigger questions relate to whether the new merged Thomson Reuters entity can present a more effective competitive challenge to the seeming might of Bloomberg - not forgetting the recent rise of smaller competitors like Factset and Markit."

The FT goes on to say the regulators focused on activities away from the trading floors where Reuters and Thomson Financial make most of their revenues, looking instead at research and asset management.

Their concerns centred on aftermarket broker research reports, earnings estimates, fundamental financial data and economic data.

Thomson agreed to sell a copy of its Thomson Fundamentals (Worldscope) database and Reuters has agreed to sell copies of the Reuters Estimates, Reuters Aftermarket Research and Reuters Economics (EcoWin) databases.