Thomson Reuters is in for a tough slog after missing expectations

Posted Aug 12th 2008 3:22PM by Jonathan Berr
Filed under: Earnings Reports, Bad News, Competitive Strategy, Thomson Reuters (TRI)

The timing of the Thomson-Reuters merger could not have been worse as many of their biggest customers on Wall Street are struggling. Now, Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE: TRI) is trying to make the best of a bad situation. Investors may like what they are seeing today but they won't over the long term.

Shares of Thomson Reuters are trading up even though the financial information company reported disappointing earnings. The stock is rallying following an earlier sell-off. Revenue was $3.13 billion, a 73% rise but short of the $3.32 billion analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News expected. The results benefited from the merger. Earnings were $172 million, or 22 cents per share, down from $375 million, or 58 cents per share a year earlier.

Chief Executive Tom Glocer told reporters that financial services markets "are likely to remain challenging through at least the end of the year." That means that big clients are going to be asking for big discounts. Bloomberg, my former employer and the company's biggest rival, has usually been able to resist this temptation.

Thomson Reuters can't risk alienating its customers or diluting the value of its brand. It's a lose-lose situation for the company and its investors. This stock should be avoided for the foreseeable future.

Tags: bloomberg, bloomberg lp, BloombergLp, inthenews, reuters, thomson reuters, ThomsonReuters, TRI