From: Adam Rifkin (adam@KnowNow.com)
Date: Tue Dec 26 2000 - 17:42:08 PST
Three notes:
1. Reuters is planning on selling a 25% stake in the Greenhouse Fund.
2. Reuters' ownership stake in Tibco Software has fallen to 44%.
3. Reuters is still in year 1 of a four-year $750 million Internet
initiative. Glocer looks like he'll be more into M&A's than Job was.
I have high hopes for Glocer...
http://cbs.marketwatch.com/archive/20001222/news/current/diligence.htx
> REUTERS PINS HOPES ON FIRST AMERICAN
> In a shift, British news service turns to a non-journalist
>
> By Debra McGarry, CBS.MarketWatch.com
> Last Update: 10:23 AM ET Dec 22, 2000
>
> NEW YORK (CBS.MW) -- Tom Glocer's an American lawyer who has served
> several years as a successful lieutenant under the CEO at one of the
> world's largest information companies, one where he's about to take the
> reins himself.
>
> With credentials like that, Glocer's ascent to chief executive wouldn't
> be so unusual, except for the fact that the company is London-based
> Reuters Group PLC, a 149-year-old British institution that has never
> before asked a non-journalist or an American to be its CEO.
>
> "There was a perception that they needed new blood at Reuters," said
> Angela Maxwell, an analyst who covers media and entertainment companies
> for New York-based Arnhold and L. Bleichroeder Inc.
>
> Next summer, Glocer is scheduled to take over for Peter Job, 60, who
> joined the venerable newswire service as an Oxford University journalism
> graduate 40 years ago and led it for nearly a decade before announcing
> his retirement earlier this year. But he's been practicing for the role.
>
> 'GLOBAL OPERATION'
>
> "I've been running the global operation throughout this year," Glocer
> said in a recent interview with CBS.MarketWatch.com. "One of the things
> I bring to the job moving to London at the center of the company is a
> very healthy understanding of what are the requirements out at the front line."
>
> Glocer will be the ninth CEO and the only the second non-Briton to rule
> Reuters, one of the world's first private newswire services.
>
> Key to the company's growth strategy: A four-year, $750 million Internet
> initiative, announced last February, which got Glocer deeply involved in
> Reuters' long-range plans to go beyond its core base of serving
> institutional customers.
>
> SEE RELATED STORY: Reuters at the Internet crossroads...
>
> http://www.ftmarketwatch.com/news/story.asp?guid=%7BB5C8BB1F-8CFD-4C6F-9C02-A422FE255BAB%7D
>
> "Organizationally, we have a push underway to align the firm more
> closely around the types of different users," he said. "This will lead
> to a much richer user experience and personalization." For example, a
> money manager on the so-called "buy-side" at a fund company like
> Fidelity is likely to have data and information needs that differ from
> those of a broker on the sell-side at an investment firm such as
> PaineWebber, Glocer said.
>
> LARGEST DIVISION
>
> Next July, the 41-year-old Glocer moves to London at the conclusion of
> one year running New York-based Reuters Information. As the company's
> largest division, it's in charge of product development and sales of
> news, financial data and services to institutional investors. After
> sales exceeded $2.3 billion in 1999, the division recorded third-quarter
> revenue of $639 million, up 8 percent from the same period a year ago.
>
> Glocer joined Reuters' legal department in 1993 after working as a
> lawyer specializing in mergers and acquisitions. He also held the top
> spot at Reuters Latin America in the late 1990's before he became CEO of
> Reuters America Inc., and president of Reuters Information-America.
>
> After serving in a series of outposts, he expects to draw on his
> experience around the world. "It is a very global company. The strength
> of the group is not in just having a New York access or a London access,
> but really having an incredible strength of talent in Latin America, Japan, etc."
>
> Overall, Reuters' sales in the third quarter rose 16 percent to $1.3
> billion from $1.1 billion in the same period a year ago; underlying
> revenue, not counting acquisitions and other one-time events, advanced
> 11 percent.
>
> To do better than that, Glocer says a major focus will be to reach the
> individual investor through Reuterspace, the media unit whose revenue
> jumped 64 percent in the third quarter to $96 million.
>
> MULTEX.COM JOINT VENTURE
>
> Reuters' most recent effort is a joint venture with investment and
> technology provider Multex.com to form a new company, Multex Investor
> Japan. The financial portal will enable the company to provide
> registered members a range of software applications and Japanese news
> and financial information to allow retail investors to manage their own
> personal investment portfolios.
>
> In addition to Reuters' newsgathering operations, its Instinet unit
> provides equity transactions and research services to institutional
> investors through an ECN, or electronic communications network.
>
> Instinet sales climbed 46 percent year-to-year, to $276 million in the
> third quarter, while net revenue increased by 32 percent, not counting
> the effect of acquisitions and other one-time effects. That performance
> reflects the growth of volumes in equity markets, especially in the
> U.S., which accounted for over 75 percent of Instinet's revenue in the quarter.
>
> Investors' early feedback to Glocer has been positive -- Reuters' stock
> gained nearly 10 percent following the Dec. 5 announcement of his
> appointment. While the shares are up 21 percent year to date, at around
> $98, they remain well off their 52-week high of $157.50.
>
> And there are challenges ahead.
>
> REBRANDING INSTINET.COM
>
> On Wednesday, Reuters cited market conditions in waning retail
> e-brokerage market in canceling the planned launch of its Instinet.com
> for retail investors. It will focus instead on rebranding the service
> for the wholesale market.
>
> And yet, branching out its information services into institutions or
> individual consumers hasn't been enough.
>
> Reuters created the Greenhouse Fund to invest in tech companies that can
> help the company manage technological change and navigate the online
> environment. Reuters is expected to sell a 25 percent stake in the fund,
> which has holdings in dozens of dot-com start-ups. The company also owns
> a 44 percent stake in Tibco Software, a U.S.-based e-commerce software
> developer.
>
> Perhaps Glocer's chief test will hinge on the degree to which he can
> exploit the company's position in an increasingly information-based
> economy. Critics of the current Job regime often pointed out that it
> wasn't as dynamic as it needed to be, taking too long to get up to speed
> with the Internet age.
>
> "I'm not surprised," notes analyst Maxwell, "if Reuters becomes a lot
> more active on the acquisition scale under Glocer."
---- Adam@KnowNow.ComI'm trying to free your mind, Neo. But I can only show you the door. You're the one that has to walk through it. -- The Matrix
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Dec 26 2000 - 17:47:09 PST