Categories: OLD Media Moves

Reuters, Thomson confident of merger approval

Thomson Corp.’s proposed $17 billion acquisition of Reuters Group PLC should receive regulatory clearance early in the second quarter of 2008, both companies said in a statement on Monday, according to an AP story.

AP wrote, “The new timetable is a slight delay â€” the pair had said in mid-December that the deal was expected to be completed in the first quarter.

“They said Monday that the U.S. Department of Justice, which had been due to announce its decision on Tuesday, had agreed to give its decision on the purchase ‘on or about the date’ that the European Commission makes its decision.

“The European Commission is due to make its ruling by March 10.

“Subject to the findings of both antitrust reviews, the companies said they expected the 8.7 billion pound (11.5 billion euros) deal to close ‘early in the second quarter.'”

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Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.