Reuters being purchased by a Canadian firm??

[annabanana]

Who is this "Thomson".. and what will they do with Reuters once they own it?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6648853.stm

[dave_p]

1. I assume it's the reference publisher

No sinister repute seems to attach to their name.

I think it's likely to mean business as usual.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. Do you think that Reuters is an american company?

Thomson is a huge global corporation. You can google it right here: http://www.thomson.com/ It is actually headquartered in Stamford Connecticut, which despite the presence of Senator Lieberman, is still part of the USA. The Thomson family owns a lot of the company and is Canadian.

Reuters, on the other hand, is a global corporation of European origin currently headquartered in London UK. http://www.reuters.com

[annabanana]

5. I only knew that their newswire was/is nominally better than AP

with regards to accuracy +/or spin.

[Warren Stupidity]

8. Oh I thought you were upset about foreigners and I couldn't figure out why. nt.

[MADem]

6. Didn't Reuters start out in Germany? Using pigeons?

Why, I do believe they did! http://about.reuters.com/aboutus/history/innovation.asp

Just prior to founding Reuters in 1851, Paul Julius Reuter found a niche delivering the latest news and information using the fastest technology available. In 1850 the technology was a fleet of 45 pigeons that would deliver news and stock prices between Brussels and Aachen, Germany within two hours, beating the railroad by six hours.

Reuters founding philosophy has endured. Today Reuters supplies real-time data on 5.5 million financial records including equities, bonds and derivatives from 258 exchanges and over-the-counter markets. The company provides historical information on over 40,000 companies. In addition, on average 30,000 headlines, including third party contributions, and over eight million words are published daily in 19 languages.

Besides serving the financial markets, Reuters information and news is used by the media worldwide, businesses and individuals. The company is the most read news source on the Internet reaching million .....The below illustrates some of the milestones that have made Reuters one of the world's leading financial information and services companies.

1851: Paul Julius Reuter, a German born immigrant, arrives in London from Aachen where he has been running a news and stock price information service using a combination of technology including telegraph cables and a fleet of carrier pigeons that grows to exceed 200. This helps Reuter establish an enviable reputation for speed, accuracy, integrity and impartiality. (Left: Pigeon Messages)

[Warren Stupidity]

7. Yup - this merger will help the new company compete against bloomberg news.

It will be too bad for the thomson and reuters employees who get the axe.

[Canuckistanian]

3. Thomson? They're not too bad.

Old money here in Canada. Conservative, but not rabidly so like CanWest Global.

I didn't know they had that kind of money.

[Infomaniac]

4. Thomson owns Westlaw

Westlaw and Lexis are the two biggest computer-assisted legal research services in the legal market. Law firms spend millions a year for access to the legal texts and periodicals, case law and news files on these services. A few years back, Lexis struck an licensing deal with Factiva, a Reuters and Dow Jones joint venture company, so that Lexis would the exclusive right to carry the major news and business publications. Westlaw's access to the kinds of news sources researchers typically need was caught off overnight. In exchange for the exclusive license deal, Lexis increased their access fees to the Factiva content by a factor of 10. What people used to be able to buy for $2K a month, now costs $20K. This action did not endear Lexis to many in the law and legal librarian community. So the short answer to your question of "What will they do with Reuters once they own it?" is they will integrate Reuters news content back into Westlaw. I am interested in what happens when Thomson - after they've acquired Reuters - now owns part of Factiva again. What will happen to the exclusive licensing agreement with their competitor?