Blackstone has acquired a 55% stake in Thomson Reuters' financial and risk division at a valuation of $20 billion. Blackstone's largest acquisition since the financial crisis, the deal puts them in competition with Bloomberg as well as fintech data provider startups.
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Thomson Reuters Sells Stake in Unit to Blackstone-Led Group
The financial and risk unit, which provides research and analysis tools to financial markets professionals, had revenue of $6.1 billion in 2016, a figure that accounted for more than half of the company’s total sales. The business includes Eikon, Thomson Reuters’s flagship information terminal system. The Eikon system trails Bloomberg in terms of market share: Bloomberg had about a third of the market in 2016, while the Thomson Reuters service had about 23 percent, according to data from Burton-Taylor International Consulting. Blackstone brings more than cash to the joint venture with Thomson Reuters. The private equity firm also owns Ipreo, another financial data firm, which it and Goldman Sachs bought for $975 million in 2014.
