The Thomson Corporation, a preeminent provider of information solutions to business and professional customers globally has announced that its shareholders have overwhelmingly approved the proposed acquisition of Reuters Group PLC at a special meeting held on March 26, 08 in Toronto. 99% votes went in favor of the deal and cleared the way for winding up the deal on April 17, 08.
Reuters said that its shareholders approved the transaction by 92.6% at a meeting in London. This too is the biggest that happened in the history of the Canadian-based specialized data company. If the deal approves, then the new formation will be known as Thomson Reuters Corporation and their share of the world market for financial data will be one third, in competition against Bloomberg LP.
After the deal the main situation that comes out shows Thomson’s shares fell 2.5 percent to 34.66 dollars in New York while Reuters’ US-traded shares fell 0.3 percent to 72.19. It is also coming in the ears that David Thomson, the CEO of Thomson and grandson of founder Roy Thomson will be chairman of the combined firm i.e. Thomson Reuters Corporation and Reuters CEO Tom Glocer will be chief executive of the combined Thomson Reuters.
Sources say that Richard Harrington, the president and CEO of Thomson, plans to retire after the deal and is positively looking towards it and said that the deal has given them a global footprint which they never had in their own company. This is also being said that the combination of the two is going to be tremendously good for the shareholders.
Comments
It has happened for the first time that 99% shareholders approved for the takeover, and why not sources says in the long run its going to benefit them only..