AFX for sale; is Dow Jones a buyer?

Agence France-Presse is apparently considering selling its AFX business news wire service, and Dow Jones and Xinhua News Agency might be bidding, according to an article on TheBusinessOnline.com.

Reporter Adam Durschlag writes, “Last week, Thomson Corporation, the Canada-based electronic publishing company, was understood to have approached Agence France-Presse (AFP), the world’s oldest news agency, about buying its financial news service AFX. Thomson already outsources some news output to AFX, such as Thomson Investment Management News.

“Talks between Thomson and AFP are thought to be at an early stage and could still be broken up, according to a banking source. Dow Jones and Thomson declined to comment.

“AFP sold its AFX Asia subsidiary in 2003 to Hong Kong’s Xinhua Financial Network, a subsidiary of China’s state-controlled Xinhua News Agency. That same year AFX set up a joint venture with Xinhua Financial Network and also MarketWatch, which Dow Jones bought in 2005. They called the venture the World Business News Alliance, a global financial news service delivered through Thomson Financial terminals. It was set up to save money by sharing technology and resources.”

Read more here.