Thomson Reuters to acquire financial commentary site Breakingviews

A day after Bloomberg acquired leading US business magazine, BusinessWeek, from McGraw-Hill, rival financial information provider Thomson Reuters has responded by  maing an an offer yesterday to acquire global financial insight commentary site Breakingviews for an undisclosed sum. (See: McGraw-Hill sells BusinessWeek to Bloomberg)

Thomson Reuters said that its offer has been accepted by Breakingviews' directors, who are unanimously recommending the offer to their shareholders. The transaction is expected to complete within eight weeks.

Founded in 1999 by former Financial Times editor Hugo Dixon, Breakingviews is a financial commentary website in which Dow Jones, a unit of the Rupert Murdoch-owned News Corporation is a minority investor.

According to the online edition of the UK's Guardian, Thomson Reuters is paying around $20.6 million for the acquisition.

The acquisition will give New York-based Thomson Reuters a real-time subscription service that currently reaches around 15,000 finance professionals such as investment bankers, senior corporate executives, hedge fund managers, lawyers and private equity professionals.

Breakingviews will be managed by Reuters and  complement news agency's global commentary service. In 2008 Reuters established an international commentary team, which has become a highly valued part of Reuters global, multimedia news and information offering.