Tom Glocer 'going hard' after Bloomberg

The two companies are in a dead heat: Thomson Reuters has 34 per cent of the market for financial data, Bloomberg 33 per cent.

The newspaper said Glocer concedes there is some symmetry in Thomson Reuters’ challenge to Bloomberg. “Reuters used to be BOAC,” he said. “Along came Richard Branson and Virgin, and suddenly British Airways became a much better airline. Bloomberg is that Virgin that forced Reuters to sharpen up.”

Glocer thinks he can go after Bloomberg on price and, more important, on flexibility, The New York Times said. It quoted Douglas B. Taylor, managing partner at Burton-Taylor International Consulting and a former executive with both Thomson Financial and Reuters as saying “Bloomberg has a real problem finding new business. They priced themselves at the top of the market. There are different points on a pricing curve that Bloomberg can’t hit but that Thomson Reuters can deliver. It’s going to be hard to figure out where Bloomberg’s new growth opportunities will be that don’t cannibalize its current pricing.”

Price may be a larger factor in emerging markets, particularly Asia, which both companies agree is the next battleground in their war for financial information supremacy, the newspaper said.

“The next stage of the battle may also involve technology. Even before the takeover, both Thomson and Reuters were developing products for so-called black box trading, computer systems that replace human traders. The combined company now leads the business of selling data with minimal time delays for black box systems, a highly profitable line of products, according to Mr. Taylor...

“Even Reuters’s founding business - the news agency that supplies articles and photos to newspapers and Web sites as well as news video to broadcasters and publishers - is growing. As traditional publishers like newspapers shrink their staffs, they rely more on news agencies, Mr. Glocer said. Although he added, perhaps only half-joking, ‘longer term, I hope the patient doesn’t die’.” ■