Offer seeks to build on Reuters leadership in financial news commentary

NEW YORK – Thomson Reuters today confirms that it is has made a formal offer to acquire a leading global financial insight commentary business, Breakingviews. This offer, for an undisclosed sum, has been accepted by Breakingviews’ directors, who are unanimously recommending the offer to their shareholders. The transaction is expected to complete within eight weeks.

Breakingviews will be managed by the Reuters news organization and will further enhance and build upon Reuters own fast-growing global commentary service. In 2008 Reuters established an international commentary team, which has become a highly valued part of Reuters global, multimedia news and information offering.  

“Based on the recent success of our strategy to move into commentary and the positive feedback we have received from Thomson Reuters clients, we are now seeking to accelerate our global commentary offering. The acquisition of Breakingviews brings together two of the most respected and influential teams of business, financial and political news commentators in the world and understandably, we are very excited about the opportunity this presents. We expect the combined talent and editorial strength of the enlarged team to enable us to become the world’s premier financial commentary service,” said David Schlesinger, editor-in-chief, Reuters.

Devin Wenig, CEO, Thomson Reuters Markets, said, "We are committed to extending our leadership in global news by continuing to invest in covering markets faster and more comprehensively. By adding Breakingviews to our existing commentary service, Thomson Reuters will provide our clients with deeper critical insight and analysis."

The combined Reuters Breakingviews Commentary team will operate under the Breakingviews brand. The separate stand-alone brand will allow Reuters to continue to ensure that there remains a clear distinction between the organization’s news service and commentary offering. Breakingviews will continue to represent the commentary and opinion of the author, while Reuters reporting will continue to represent the traditional sourced news and analysis that has been its staple for more than 150 years.

The combined Reuters Breakingviews commentary service will be made exclusively available to Thomson Reuters premium desktop clients immediately following the closing of the transaction. Thomson Reuters also intends to build on Breakingviews’ syndication relationships with many of the world’s leading newspapers.

Hugo Dixon, editor-in-chief, Breakingviews, who will be running the combined commentary team, said: “This combination will give us an enormous opportunity to enhance the impact of our agenda-setting insight. Breakingviews will have a much larger group of commentators, be in more of the world’s financial capitals and have access to Thomson Reuters’ unrivalled customer base.”

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, healthcare and science and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: TRI) and New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: TRI). For more information, go to www.thomsonreuters.com.

About Breakingviews

Breakingviews was founded in 1999 to provide online financial commentary aimed at a professional audience. It is one of a handful of journalism websites to have successfully introduced a subscription model. The company also has a thriving syndication business. Branded Breakingviews columns appear in 15 leading publications around the world. The company continued to grow through the financial crisis with revenue rising last year by 23%. Since its inception, Breakingviews has been influential on a broad range of stories including the TMT bubble, numerous takeover sagas, the credit bubble and subsequent banking crisis, and how the financial system should now be reformed.

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