Categories: OLD Media Moves

Thomson agrees to buy Reuters for $17 billion

Thomson Corp. agreed to buy Reuters Group PLC in a deal valued at $17 billion where Reuters CEO Tom Glocer will become the head of the combined companies, they announced Tuesday.

A Reuters story stated, “Thomson said it would do what was required to win anti-trust clearance. Reuters Chief Executive Tom Glocer, who will head the combined Thomson-Reuters company, declined to predict how long the process would take but said disposals may not be needed.

“‘I would not expect we would need to make any divestitures,’ he said on a conference call with reporters.

“The companies say the combination is a natural fit across geography and products, bringing together Reuters strength in real-time data and news with Thomson’s historical information.”

Later, the story noted, “Unions representing Reuters staff in Britain, Canada and the United States wrote to the Reuters Founders Share Company on Monday expressing ‘deep concern’ about the impact a single controlling shareholder could have on Reuters news values.”

Read more here.

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.