Thomson Reuters makes formal offer to acquire Breakingviews.com

Reuters editor in chief David Schlesinger sent out the following e-mail to the editorial staff on Wednesday:

“I am very pleased to inform you that Thomson Reuters has made an offer to acquire Breakingviews, a leading source of financial commentary and insight. The Breakingviews board has accepted our offer but it remains subject to the required level of shareholder approval, which we expect to receive in due course. We are very optimistic of the opportunity this presents. We believe the combined talent and editorial strengths will enable us to become the world’s premier financial commentary service.

“Upon completion of the transaction we will combine our existing commentary offering, which has gained high praise from our customers, with a well known and respected brand. This will result in a larger commentary staff than either organization currently has today.

“As I have shared with you before, a fundamental plank of my strategy for making Reuters the indispensable news service for the 21st century is to expand our traditional fact-based news coverage to offer agenda-setting point-of-view journalism.

“Since adding columnists and commentary to our news we have done just that. We have built a vibrant commentary team that has gained a following from Thomson Reuters customers across the globe.

“We are not trying to start over with our commentary strategy. Rather, we are looking to build on the success and strategy that our team has built, while leveraging the reputation and heritage of Breakingviews.

“Reuters Breakingviews will designate commentary and opinion that represents the clear point-of-view of the author. Reuters, on its own, will represent the traditional sourced news and analysis that has been our staple for more than a century and a half.

“Assuming we receive the required level of shareholder support for our offer, we expect to complete the deal within 8 weeks. If and when the deal closes, we will quickly begin the integration planning to combine the two organizations. Until an acquisition is fully completed, of course, Breakingviews remains a separate, independent company.

“The Reuters Breakingviews service will be made available to Thomson Reuters premium desktop clients on Day One.

“For additional details, please see the Reuters Breakingviews FAQ.

“Our goal of being the indispensable news service for the 21st century is clear; to reach it we must give customers more insight throughout the file and give them relevant and actionable point-of-view commentary. The offer we made today is an important step towards that goal.”