Thomson Reuters discusses Breakingviews takeover

Breakingviews is a privately held media company based in London. It has made no comment about the talks and a spokeswoman for Thomson Reuters declined to discuss the reports, saying the company did not comment on market rumours. But she did say “Thomson Reuters remains committed to its innovation agenda, which includes investments in news and commentary initiatives.”

Thomson Reuters began its own online financial commentary unit this year. New York-based Felix Salmon, who is leading the effort to produce a financial blog, does not think the company will buy Breakingviews.

“Needless to say, I have no first-hand, or even second-hand, knowledge of such matters - nobody tells me anything, and nor should they. But I can say that this smells of desperation on the part of Breaking Views, and I will also confidently predict that the deal is not going to happen,” he wrote in a Reuters blog.

“When I joined Reuters’s commentary group, it was clear to me that we were a Breakingviews killer: we were going to provide better commentary than they do, at the unbeatable price of $0.00. Reuters can afford to do that because journalism is always a loss center here: the profts come from terminal sales, and introducing a commentary service adds value to the terminals and makes them easier to sell.”

Breakingviews’ commentary is syndicated in several newspapers including The New York Times, The Daily Telegraph and Le Monde. It was founded in 2000 by two journalists who worked for the Financial Times’ Lex column, which produces similar commentary.

The company has only a small number of shareholders and is partly owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. by way of its acquisition of Dow Jones in 2007.

The discussions between Thomson Reuters and Breakingviews were reported by The Times and The New York Times. ■