Reuters Ltd

Reuters Growing in Asia: Reuters Ltd., a unit of Reuters Holdings, has been licensed to sell real-time financial information and transaction services in Vietnam. Reuters said it will deliver screen-based information services via its satellite network and offer other services using land-based networks. Graham Spencer, Reuters manager for Thailand, Burma and Indochina, said the company will open a Hanoi office in a few weeks and another in Ho Chi Minh City later this year.

Thomson Corp.'s $18.4-billion offer for Reuters will face an in-depth inquiry by EU antitrust regulators who worry the deal could harm competition in the financial information industry, the European Commission said.

Reuters to Supply NBC With News, Financial Data: The international news service agreed to supply the television network with material it can use in its programming worldwide, the companies announced. Terms of the pact were not disclosed. Under the 10-year contract, NBC will be able to use Reuters information from around the world on all of its existing and future program services.

An Iraqi interpreter for Reuters was shot to death in Baghdad, an apparent victim of sectarian death squads, the third Reuters employee killed in the Iraqi capital this week, the news agency reported Saturday. London-based Reuters news agency did not identify the interpreter at the request of relatives, apparently to avoid publicizing the family's link to the company. The announcement of his death came a day after an Iraqi journalist who worked for the New York Times was killed by gunmen.

Leftist rebels seized a Reuters news agency photographer while he was on assignment in a mountain town and said they would put him on trial for publishing a photo of a rebel leader's face. Henry Romero, 42, a Colombian freelancer who works regularly with the London-based agency, was detained by guerrillas of the National Liberation Army, or ELN, on Tuesday evening in Jamundi, a town near Cali. Reuters' editor in chief, Mark Wood, urged Romero's immediate release.

Reuters Group, the news and financial information provider, said it plans to cut 1,100 jobs, or about 6% of its work force, by the end of next year in an effort to boost profit. The announcement came as Reuters reported a 20% decline in profit for the first half of the year to $322 million, even though revenue rose 14% to $2.75 billion. The staff reduction will include 240 job cuts at the company's Instinet group, which had 2,021 employees at the end of last year.

The U.S. military confirmed that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was appropriate. Television soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots Sunday. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said, "That car approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious." Soldiers "decided that it was appropriate to engage that particular car."

Thomson Corp.'s $18.4-billion offer for Reuters will face an in-depth inquiry by EU antitrust regulators who worry the deal could harm competition in the financial information industry, the European Commission said.

Thomson Corp. is selling its education assets for a higher-than-expected $7.75 billion in cash, giving the electronic publisher a big cash infusion to pursue its bid for Reuters Group. Apax Partners, a London-based private equity group, and Canada's Omers Capital Partners will buy the business, the companies said Friday. The price was well above the $5 billion to $6 billion expected by analysts.

Reuters Group, the world's biggest financial information provider, may unveil plans to sell shares in electronic stock-trading network Instinet Corp. when the company reports earnings today. "I wouldn't be surprised by Reuters' plans to spin off Instinet," said Bear Stearns & Co. analyst Amy Butte. Butte said her information came from research on electronic communications networks, which included conversations with the company. Reuters and Instinet spokesmen declined to comment.

Thomson Corp.'s $17.6-billion takeover of Reuters Group announced Tuesday now faces scrutiny from antitrust regulators and unions unhappy about expected job cuts. The renamed Thomson-Reuters Corp. would reduce the number of major companies providing financial data, news and trading systems to the financial services industry from three to two and vault it slightly ahead of the current market leader, privately held Bloomberg.

Thomson Corp. is selling its education assets for a higher-than-expected $7.75 billion in cash, giving the electronic publisher a big cash infusion to pursue its bid for Reuters Group. Apax Partners, a London-based private equity group, and Canada's Omers Capital Partners will buy the business, the companies said Friday. The price was well above the $5 billion to $6 billion expected by analysts.

The U.S. military confirmed that its soldiers killed a Reuters journalist in Iraq but said their action was appropriate. Television soundman Waleed Khaled was killed by multiple shots Sunday. Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch said, "That car approached at a high rate of speed and then conducted activity that in itself was suspicious." Soldiers "decided that it was appropriate to engage that particular car."

As a Hollywood studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. can proudly claim to be in the fantasy business. But none of the fantasies MGM has put on-screen recently seems capable of generating quite as much instant value as the yarn it has spun over the last two weeks regarding a putative buyout offer from Sony Corp. As wholesaled on April 21 by Reuters News Service, the story is that Sony has "initiated" talks with MGM aimed at a $5-billion takeover, and that the talks have reached an "advanced" stage.

Financial news and data provider Reuters Group has sued Bloomberg, claiming that its rival violated three patents on trading technology. The federal lawsuit, filed last week in Manhattan, asks the court to order Bloomberg to stop using the technology. The lawsuit also seeks unspecified damages. The technology allows Reuters customers to trade securities based on market data provided by the service.

Reuters Group, the news and financial information provider, said it plans to cut 1,100 jobs, or about 6% of its work force, by the end of next year in an effort to boost profit. The announcement came as Reuters reported a 20% decline in profit for the first half of the year to $322 million, even though revenue rose 14% to $2.75 billion. The staff reduction will include 240 job cuts at the company's Instinet group, which had 2,021 employees at the end of last year.

As a Hollywood studio, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. can proudly claim to be in the fantasy business. But none of the fantasies MGM has put on-screen recently seems capable of generating quite as much instant value as the yarn it has spun over the last two weeks regarding a putative buyout offer from Sony Corp. As wholesaled on April 21 by Reuters News Service, the story is that Sony has "initiated" talks with MGM aimed at a $5-billion takeover, and that the talks have reached an "advanced" stage.

Reuters, the venerable media and information company, announced Wednesday that it has promoted the 41-year-old head of its U.S. division, attorney Tom Glocer, to serve as the company's next chief executive. Glocer, the first American to lead the 150-year-old company, will succeed Peter Job, who is to retire in July. Currently chief executive of Reuters Information and Reuters America, Glocer is seen as having a good grasp of new-media technology.

Reuters, the venerable media and information company, announced Wednesday that it has promoted the 41-year-old head of its U.S. division, attorney Tom Glocer, to serve as the company's next chief executive. Glocer, the first American to lead the 150-year-old company, will succeed Peter Job, who is to retire in July. Currently chief executive of Reuters Information and Reuters America, Glocer is seen as having a good grasp of new-media technology.

Reuters Group plans to spend $800 million over four years to reinvent itself as an Internet company that will deliver news and financial data to mom-and-pop investors and Wall Street pros alike. The 150-year-old London-based news service hopes to capitalize on the boom in interest about financial data and markets, for the first time targeting amateur investors. In doing so, it hopes to sharply expand its fee-based subscriber service.