Earnings: Thomson Reuters Sees Strong Demand Despite Downturn, Sales Up In First Full Quarter
This story was written by Patrick Smith.
Thomson Reuters (NASDAQ: TRIN) is beginning to reap the benefits of one of the biggest company mergers of recent years, today reporting eight percent better Q3 revenues of $3.3 billion (2.2 billion), with operating profit up 17 percent to $676 million (414 million). In the first full quarter since the pair's merger, those leaps come directly from the pair's 8.7 billion marriage this June and are helped by $550 million of savings from integration-related activities - like laying off hundreds of staff globally no final figure on casualties has been given, but CEO Tom Glocer said the process is "ahead of schedule".
Glocer said, while it's "certainly mathematically possible" that the company will begin 2009 negatively if it has a disastrous November and December, in reality all the various components of the business were holding up well. The dreaded credit crunch is biting, but "there has already been a silver lining in the disruption the demand for financial news, for pricing data, for data feeds, for infrastructure is strong," said Glocer.
By 2011, the company plans to have saved 1.21 billion through integration, with costs of $100 million.
By Patrick Smith