In a vote of confidence, Thomson and Reuters (RTRSY) announced that if their merger goes through, they will make Tom Glocer CEO of the company. A unique move in that he is CEO of Reuters who would be taken over by the larger Thomson. If the deal is consummated, current Thomson president and CEO Richard Harrington will retire when the practical details are completed.
One of Glocer's key strengths is his focus on generating revenue from the company's trading products, even though Reuters is known more for its investigative reporting and news-breaking stories.
Over 40 percent of Reuters' revenue comes from its trading services in foreign exchanges and U.S. Treasuries.
Within that product space is probably the reason Thomson is making this move. Reuters, according to Forbes, has a new product that "is a centrally-cleared OTC foreign exchange trading platform which Reuters says takes advantage of the 16% annual growth rate of the forex trading market." It's called FXMarketSpace.
Glocer has been given credit for making Reuters a strong competitor to their chief rival Bloomberg through his focus on and improvement of these types of trading products.
For Glocer it will be quite a windfall for him if the deal proceeds because of his current ownership of 721,802 shares in Reuters. That would net him almost $10 million if the sale goes through. He also has 7.2 million share options that would be worth millions if he exercises them.
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