More change at the top: Thomson Reuters, S&P
Jinfo Blog

By Nancy Davis Kho

Item

If recent announcements in the online financial content industry are an indication, 2012 is going to be a year of dramatic fresh starts. First there was the announcement from Thomson Reuters in early December that CEO Tom Glocer is stepping down from the helm on 31 December, to be replaced by Chief Operating Officer Jim Smith, along with a reorganisation along customer segment lines.

Meanwhile, New Year's Day will also see the departure of former Standard & Poor's President Devon Sharma, who lost the title and moved into the dreaded "special projects" role in September as the reins were turned over to Douglas Peterson, former chief operating officer of Citibank. Sharma was perceived as the public face of the ratings agency throughout a time of controversy as it downgraded the United States credit rating, even as it was being investigated for its own role in the subprime mortgage securities fiasco. Peterson will also oversee a division reorganisation, announced on 8 December, that puts an Executive Committee in place.

Standard & Poor 's parent company, McGraw-Hill, is doing more housecleaning; in an announcement on 7 December, the company said it plans to cut 550 jobs from its Education unit and freeze employee pensions, in preparation for plans announced last September to split the company into McGraw-Hill Financial and McGraw-Hill Education.

In the case of Thomson Reuters, Glocer's departure comes at the end of disappointing year for the company's Markets division, which contributes about half of the company's overall revenues. In an interview with the Globe and Mail in early November, Glocer conceded that the launch of the new Eikon financial data platform was "overambitious" and had failed to gain desktop traction, a must for the company if it is to compete with Bloomberg. Thomson Reuters stock price has slid almost 30% since the start of 2011.

Glocer was CEO of Reuters at the time the two companies merged, the first American and first non-journalist to have the job. His replacement by Smith, who started as a Thomson journalist back in 1987, means that Reuters senior management has effectively been disappeared from the top tier of company management.

The new Thomson Reuters organisation will have six business units, erasing the line between Professional and Markets that existed under Glocer: Financial & Risk; Legal; Intellectual Property & Science; Tax & Accounting; Media; and Global Growth Organization.

Between Thomson Reuters, Standard & Poor/McGraw-Hill, and the announcement, covered in this post by Tim Buckley Owen, of Clare Hart's departure from InfoGroup, 2012 is shaping up to be a year full of change – not just for the premium business information providers, but for the clients who buy from them.

« Blog