So, my old firm, Thomson Financial, has finally managed to bag Reuters in a colossal £8.8bn tie up. This pitches them firmly in a head-to-head with Bloomberg in the market for the provision of market data and trading terminals to financial institutions. These two behemoths now have an effective duopoly of that market as follows:

- Bloomberg                     34%
- Thomson/Reuters           34%
- S&P                              13%
- Moody's                         10%
- Interactive Data               3%
Source: EFinancialNews

The merger has already got over its first potential hurdle, having had tacit agreement from the Reuters Trust (the group set up to protect the independence and integrity of the company). However there is still the small matter of the UK Competition Commission to convince. Nonetheless this is a stunning move from TF. I worked there many moons ago now (back in the late 90s) and back then Sir Ken (Thomson - the mogul who owned the Thomson Corp) was always hinting that he would eventually like to on Bloomberg head on. It's a real shame that he is longer alive to see this. Huge plaudits should also go to Sharon Rowlands for steering them in this direction with such a steady hand. Personally I am not sure whether she will survive the merger, but she is an impressive and wildly talented individual - so I doubt that this will be the last that we see of her on the corporate scene.