homson, a Canadian data company, has offered about $17.2 billion for a cash and stock takeover of Reuters. The combined group will command 34 per cent of the financial data market and will face competition from Bloomberg, the second largest company in the area.

Having been approved by the shareholders of Reuters and Thomson, the deal is still awaiting review by antitrust regulators and analysts believe that the group might have to divest some operations under their ruling because there are very few companies that provide financial information, and the antitrust regulators will try to prevent monopolies. ... more