May 15 2007
Reuters agreed on Tuesday to a $17.2 billion takeover by Thomson that would vault the combined entity ahead of Bloomberg to become the world’s largest financial data and news provider. Reuters trustees, who could have vetoed any takeover, endorsed the deal, which is still subject to approval by shareholders and regulators. Holders of each Reuters Group PLC share traded in London will be paid the equivalent of about $7 in cash and 0.16 shares of Thomson Corp.’s Toronto-listed stock. The merged companies will have a dual-listed structure.
The combined company will be headed by Tom Glocer, 47, who is now chief executive of Reuters. The value of the deal is calculated based on Thomson’s closing share price of 48.46 Canadian dollars on the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 3, the day before the companies announced they were exploring a combination. Shareholders of Thomson, formally based in Toronto but with its operational head office in Stamford, Conn., would control more than three quarters of the shares in the new company, Thomson-Reuters PLC.
Woodbridge, the Thomson family holding company which controls roughly 70 percent of Thomson, will own approximately 53 percent of the combined business. Other Thomson shareholders will have 23 percent and Reuters shareholders 24 percent. Reuters and Thomson compete with Bloomberg LP, founded by New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg, in providing data terminals to the world’s major banks and brokerages. Reuters was the market leader for years before steadily losing ground to Bloomberg. Bloomberg has a 33 percent share of the market, with Reuters holding 23 percent and Thomson 11 percent. The renamed Thomson-Reuters will retain current listings on the Toronto Stock Exchange and on the New York Stock Exchange. It also will apply for its ordinary shares to be listed on the London Stock Exchange and intends to apply for its American Depositary Shares to be listed on Nasdaq. The combined Thomson Financial unit and Reuters financial and media businesses will be called Reuters.
It seems merger will be a continuous process for the year 2007, what is not normal is the pace of M&A has been accelerate to the speed that it already started early of the year instead of the normal end of the year.
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May 15th, 2007 by financetwitter
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