Thomson Reuters sells, buys
Jinfo Blog

By Nancy Davis Kho

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With an announcement on Tuesday that it is divesting itself of its Healthcare related data and analysis business, ThomsonReuters (TSX/NYSE: TRI) sent a strong message to its customers and competitors that it is concentrating its efforts on what it considers to be core franchises: the financial, legal and business markets. Prior to the announcement, the Healthcare business provided data, analytics and performance benchmarking solutions and services to companies, government agencies and healthcare professionals, to the tune of $450 million in revenue in 2010. That's a drop in the bucket of the company's $13.1 billion revenue that year, though it maintained the same operating margin of around 19% as the company as a whole.

According to the press release, it was a lack of integration points with other Thomson Reuters divisions, along with issues of scalability, that led to the decision to divest. It seems that the division's US focus may have been a concern.  The Detroit News points out that the future for the 2,040 employees of the division is up in the air, quoting a company spokesman as saying, "we haven't even started conversations on the sale". Affected products and platforms include MarketScan, Advantage Suite, Micromedex, CareDiscovery and ActionOI.

But as Thomson Reuters divests, so too it acquires. On 16 May it was World-Check, a leading global provider of financial crime and corruption prevention information, which will help strengthen its offerings in the areas of regulatory compliance and due diligence. The company will join Thomson Reuters Governance, Risk, & Compliance division. According to the press release, "more than 5,400 clients in over 150 countries, including 49 of the world's top 50 banks, 200 enforcement and regulatory agencies, and 45 of the world’s top 100 corporations, rely on the World-Check database".

A day later, the news moved to Brazil with Thomson Reuters' acquisition of Masteraf, a top provider of tax and accounting solutions for companies operating in Brazil. In the press release, Brian Peccarelli, president, Tax & Accounting for Thomson Reuters, said, “Mastersaf fits nicely into our ONESOURCE global suite of products and positions”, and the deal certainly strengthens Thomson Reuters' hand in the Latin American market.

And on 2 June, Thomson Reuters announced plans to acquire Manatron, a provider of property tax automation and land registry software for governments and municipalities around the world, from Thoma Bravo LLC, a private equity firm. The move is seen as a strategy to strengthen the Tax & Accounting division by providing government tax automation solutions.

No doubt about it - the recent M&A activity by Thomson Reuters signals big plans to broaden and deepen their solutions for financial, legal and business markets.

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