Considering it's a well and truly 'done deal' at over 690p a share I am amazed that more people are not seeing the profit to be had in this company. Presently it is 623p -which means a good 10% profit is available.

AFX
2.21pm


LONDON (Thomson Financial) - Thomson Corp said its vice chairman, Brian Hall, will leave the company following the agreed 8.7 bln stg cash-and-shares takeover of UK-based financial data and news provider Reuters Group.

'Brian Hall has been an exemplary leader (and) will leave behind a legacy of excellence,' said Dick Harrington, chief executive officer of Thomson, in a statement.

The Guardian - May 16, 2007 - Richard Wray

Reuters agrees 8.7bn merger to create largest financial news provider


Reuters agreed an 8.7bn takeover by its Canadian rival Thomson yesterday, in a deal that will net 27m for Reuters chief executive Tom Glocer and see a further 342m windfall shared among 11,000 other staff at the 156-year-old financial information company. The deal has received the crucial backing of an independent committee set up to maintain the impartiality of Reuters' news reporting, which could have scuppered any merger. Unions representing journalists and other workers, however, warned yesterday about significant job losses among the group's combined workforce of nearly 50,000 as the management targets $500m (250m) in cost savings over the next three years.

The deal adds fuels to the record number of mergers and takeovers announced so far this year. Some $2 trillion of deals are under way - up 70% on the same time last year and some $500m more than during the height of the dotcom boom. The data compiled by Thomson Financial shows that Europe is a particular hotbed of activity where the value of deals has more than doubled to $912bn.

The cash and shares takeover by Thomson will create the world's largest provider of financial news and information, with a market share in excess of 34%. The two sides cleared a major hurdle when the Reuters Founders Share Company gave its permission for the deal. Set up when Reuters floated in 1984, it has the power to block any takeover it believes would harm the principles enshrined in the Reuters Trust, which protects the independence of the firm's journalism, by calling upon a 30% "golden share". To gain approval for the merger, the trust's principles will be extended across the merged group, while the Thomson family, which controls the Canadian company and will have a 53% stake in the merged business, has agreed to clear its voting intentions at annual meetings with the Founders Share Company. In return Woodbridge, the holding company that looks after the Thomson family assets, is exempted from the rule - that will be rolled over into Thomson-Reuters - that no one person or company can hold a stake of 15% or more. Woodbridge is not barred from selling shares in the merged group, but if its shareholding falls below 35%, the Founders Share Company will be granted a "golden share" again which it can use as a veto. Woodbridge president Geoff Beattie said the family had no plans to sell out, adding "we have undertaken that we would not sell a piece of our position to any one person to allow them to acquire more than 15%" of the merged firm. "We are as interested in the Reuters Trust principles as anyone," he added. Reuters chairman Niall FitzGerald said the trust had been strengthened by the new deal. "If the document that did exist was ever to be challenged in a court ... there was a degree of imprecision in some of the wording which could have proved to be a problem," he said. "So we have taken the opportunity to tidy it up so it's watertight." Talks between the two sides were first announced less than two weeks ago.

Yesterday Thomson reiterated that it will pay 352.5p in cash plus 0.16 of a Thomson share for each Reuters share, which currently values Reuters at 691p a share or 8.7bn..

Unite, the trade union created by the merger of Amicus and the T&G, said yesterday it feared the takeover would result in "large scale" job losses. The 11,000 Reuters staff involved in the company's numerous share save schemes, however, will share the 342m cash windfall.

Thomson to Save $500 Million; Investors Estimate More - By Mark Herlihy

May 16 (Bloomberg) -- Thomson Corp. and Reuters Group Plc set a goal of $500 million a year in cost reductions from their $17.2 billion combination. Investors say the merged company can save more. ``It's not an overly ambitious target,'' about 5 percent to 6 percent of the companies' $11 billion in revenue, said Anthony de Larrinaga, an analyst at SG Securities in London.

Thomson agreed yesterday to buy London-based Reuters, making it the biggest financial news and information company, with 60,000 employees in more than 196 countries. Thomson can cut jobs in sales and administration and sell real estate, Chief Executive Officer Richard Harrington said in an interview. Eliminating overlapping departments that compile earnings estimates and price securities will also decrease spending. ``Just these two things will get you a couple of hundred million, easy,'' said Paul Harris, a fund manager at Avenue Investment Management in Toronto, which oversees $91 million. Promised savings of $500 million annually within three years of completing the union would equal about 8.5 percent of the companies' costs, said Simon Baker, an analyst at Credit Suisse in London. Thomson-Reuters, as the new company will be called, would have to shed as many as 5,100 jobs if it cut 8.5 percent of its workforce, Baker said.

Thomson officials declined to provide specific plans for job cuts at a news conference in Toronto today. The savings may be worth as much as 250 pence per share, said Johnathan Barrett, an analyst at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander Capital Markets in London. Harrington, 60, said he was optimistic savings could be achieved through minimal firings. ``We have not been specific whether there will be layoffs,'' he said. ``Hopefully we're able to get enough growth and through normal attrition to have it be minimal.'' In a memo to employees yesterday, Reuters Chief Executive Officer Tom Glocer, 47, who will become CEO of Thomson-Reuters, also played down the prospect of firings. ``Much will be written in the media about job cuts and there will be some,'' Glocer said. ``But far greater value will come from what we can do together.''

Thomson, owner of the Westlaw legal database and TradeWeb bond-trading network, offered 696 pence in cash and stock for each share of Reuters, the dominant service for trading currencies. The U.K. company's stock closed at 624.50 pence in London, 10 percent below the bid on concern that U.S. and European regulators may reject the transaction. Thomson shares climbed 48 cents to C$46.83 at 4:10 p.m. in Toronto. The company is based in Toronto and much of its staff works in a headquarters building in Stamford, Connecticut. Thomson officials declined to say whether they will consolidate the head offices. Reuters stockholders will receive 352.5 pence in cash and 0.16 Thomson share for each share, the companies said in a statement. The acquisition won approval from the Reuters Founders Share Co., a board with special voting rights to protect the 156-year-old news service's independence and integrity. Credit Suisse's Baker estimated the cost savings Reuters and Thomson are predicting to be worth 191 pence per share.

Charles Peacock, an analyst at Seymour Pierce in London, said the planned savings would represent about 170 pence per share of the merged company. ``There are clear economies of scale, raising the margins of Reuters up to the 29 percent that Thomson has achieved,'' he said. Bloomberg LP, the closely held news and financial information company founded by New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, is the parent of Bloomberg News and competes with Reuters and Thomson in selling information and trading systems to the financial-services industry. Combining with Reuters would lift Thomson's share of the financial data market to 34 percent from 11 percent, compared with Bloomberg's 33 percent share, according to 2006 figures compiled by Inside Market Data, an industry newsletter. Thomson Chairman David Thomson, a 49-year-old grandson of founder Roy Thomson, will be chairman. Shares of Thomson-Reuters will be listed in Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.
``It's inevitable that there will be job cuts,'' said Barrett at Kaupthing Singer & Friedlander. ``Reuters has proved it can deliver on cost savings, so they will probably achieve this,'' he said. Analysts said the combined company may exceed the targeted savings by reducing office space, closing call centers, eliminating overlapping products and redeploying or cutting support staff. Communications costs may also be cut. ``There are many ways for us to basically get those cost savings,'' Harrington said.

FT - Thursday, May 17th, 2007

Thomson accepts Reuters voting code

The Thomson family may have to vote its stake in the new Thomson Reuters in line with the Reuters Founders Share Companys wishes, it emerged on Wednesday, as the bodys chairman gave his first explanation of why it waived its rules to allow the deal to go ahead. Pehr Gyllenhammar, chairman of the FSC trustees, said Thomson had agreed to vote as we direct them on any matter the trustees deem threatening to the five Reuters Trust principles that protect Reuters editorial independence. Niall FitzGerald, chairman of Reuters, said on Tuesday that jobs would be allocated to the best in class from each firm but executives from both are expected to look for jobs elsewhere.

Harry ... there is already a current RTR thread ...... please can you avail yourself of it to keep all comment etc in one place ... many thanks

Thomson-Reuters deal would raise U.S. antitrust issue - By Peter Kaplan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Canadian publisher Thomson would face an arduous investigation by U.S. antitrust authorities if it makes a bid to acquire news and financial data provider Reuters , antitrust law experts said on Friday. "It's going to be a really tough investigation," said one prominent antitrust lawyer who requested anonymity. "I'm not sure it's doable."

A combined Reuters and Thomson would reduce the number of major players in financial information, and give Toronto-based Thomson a lead in the market currently dominated by Reuters and privately owned Bloomberg. However, such a deal could still win approval if an investigation showed that the market would remain competitive after the merger. "If (the market) is defined narrowly, the market shares could be problematic. But there may be reasons why the market is not as narrow as one would think," said Robert Doyle, a partner in the firm Doyle, Barlow & Mazard. "And given the past history of mergers getting through in highly concentrated markets, this case stands a good chance of passing antitrust muster," Doyle said.

Under U.S. antitrust law, authorities can sue to block any merger if their investigation concludes that it would substantially lessen competition. Reuters faced close scrutiny in 2001 when it acquired some of the assets of Bridge Information Systems, a smaller competitor in the market for news and financial data. However, the deal was ultimately approved. Some antitrust lawyers said the timing of the proposal could be key.

In recent years under the Bush administration, the Justice Department has taken a conservative approach to merger enforcement and has opposed few of the business deals that have come before it. But if the November 2008 general election put a more activist Democrat in the White House, that administration may be more prone to file a lawsuit to block mergers in highly-concentrated industries, antitrust experts said. "Under a different administration that would have a much more aggressive, enforcement-oriented antitrust program, this case would be in trouble," Doyle said.