EC clears the acquisition of Reuters by Thomson, subject to conditions, after a Phase II investigation
The European Commission has cleared Thomson Corporation's acquisition of the Reuters Group after a Phase II investigation, subject to commitments.
Both parties to the transaction are suppliers of real-time and historical financial information and desktop products for financial professionals. In its investigation, the Commission raised concerns that the concentration would have harmed competition, both at the worldwide and EEA level, between the two main suppliers of a number of categories of historical content - in particular: aftermarket broker research reports; earnings estimates; fundamental financial data; and time series of economic data. The Commission's concerns included adverse horizontal effects on financial institutions and other customers of the parties, as well as potential vertical effects, in the form of a negative downstream impact on rival providers of desktop products that integrate the parties' content into their products.
The Commission's clearance of the transaction is conditional on Thomson selling a copy of the Thomson Fundamentals (Worldscope) database and Reuters selling a copy of the Reuters Estimates, Reuters Aftermarket Research and Reuters Economics (EcoWin) databases. The sales include copies of the databases, source data and training materials, as well as certain contracts and employees connected to the databases.
A team from CRA International's London office, led by Matthias Pflanz, and including Ian Small, Geoff Edwards, Ragvir Sabharwal and Rebecca Fordham, assisted Reuters throughout the European Commission proceedings.
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