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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Thomson Reuters will trim 1,500 jobs

By Seth Sutel
Associated Press

NEW YORK — Thomson Reuters Corp. will cut 1,500 jobs as the newly combined financial and professional information provider moves to consolidate operations and reduce costs, a person familiar with the matter said yesterday.

Thomson Reuters had been widely expected to eliminate overlaps between the companies and make job cuts following Thomson Corp.'s acquisition of Reuters Group PLC on April 17.

Thomson, a Canadian company that sells legal, professional and market information, paid about $15.8 billion to acquire Reuters, a London-based financial news and information company.

The cuts represent about 3 percent of Thomson Reuters' global workforce of about 50,000.

The person familiar with the situation, who asked to remain anonymous because there was no formal announcement of the job cuts, said the layoffs would be completed by the end of the year, and include about 140 editorial positions.

Thomson and Reuters have several areas of overlap, including some news operations as well as services that provide earnings estimates for publicly traded companies.

The company had said on May 1 when it reported earnings that it expected to see annual cost savings of up to $1 billion by the end of 2010, earlier than had been previously expected.

In addition to financial news and data, the company is also a major information provider to the legal, medical, tax and accounting professions.

Thomson Reuters shares rose 30 cents to $37.95 yesterday.