Thomson Reuters Inc. - by Carl

April 17^th saw the official launch of Thomson Reuters Inc. (TRI), the acquisition of Reuters by The Thomson Corporation for almost $18 billion and the reason I was able to talk a few people into having Sue and me based in London.

The 17^th was actually the culmination of an 11 month journey and is the beginning of a 3 year plan to integrate and grow the combined business. I’m sorry if this sounds like a bit of “corporate speak” but it’s the best way I know to discuss this stuff.

The last 11 months have been filled with seeking regulatory approval from governments and securities agencies across two continents, the formation of task forces across both companies charged with the responsibility of figuring out how to bring the companies together (locations, products, sales forces, technology, human resource policies and processes, brand, etc.), determining how much it’s going to cost to integrate the businesses (about $500mm) and how much we’re going to save per year when it’s all said and done ($650mm per year). And by the way, some of us have got to do all of this while still doing our “day jobs” which mean running the businesses and growing revenues and profits. Well we did it and the 17^th saw the launch of the new company.

The launch was something special and was global in nature with events taking place in NYC, London, Toronto, Geneva and Bangalore, India.

In NYC Tom Glocer, the CEO of TRI, rang the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange; the outside of the exchange was draped with a large banner with the company name and new brand identification/logo on display in public for the first time. Simultaneous with this all the large TV screens that dominate Times Square in mid town Manhattan were “seized” by TRI about 20 seconds before the official close of the deal, and a New Years style countdown globe started to fall, and when it reached the bottom the new name and logo of the company was displayed on the 5 screens that dominate Times Square. Later in the day Tom hosted a reception for 3,000 TRI employees at Radio City Music Hall.

In London TRI was able to commandeer the London Stock Exchange where, for the first time in the history of that institution, a company was able to decorate the exterior of the building with its brand information. Later that day a reception was held in London at The Excel Center for about 3,000 TRI people who call London their home base.

A similar event took place in Toronto where the Thomson name and family are very prominent. And, as I mentioned earlier, we had town halls and celebrations in other venues in Europe and Asia. All in all, a helluva day and the start of an exciting time in the company.

So we come to the end of the first 5 weeks on a very high note. We’re having lots of fun, there is lots going on in my corporate life, and we’re looking ahead to more exciting times over the next 15 months. And, in particular, we are looking forward to seeing family and friends -- so get busy figuring out the when you’ll be here.

I have cut and pasted a web link that I think you can open that provides more details of the launch of the new company. It’s at the bottom of the message, below, from Tom Glocer. Hopefully it will work and you will find it interesting.

All the Best, Carl

Dear Colleagues:

As of today, we are the leading provider of intelligent information to businesses and professionals around the world. I have waited a long time for this day. I’d like to tell you why I am so excited about the business we are creating together, discuss how I want us to work together and ask you for your help in making this happen.

Thomson Reuters has a very exciting mission. Our business is to provide intelligent information to the world’s businesses and professionals, giving our customers competitive advantage. I believe this purpose not only defines and differentiates us, but frames a compelling and valuable strategy for us to pursue.

We have a bright and profitable future because we are living at the dawn of the information economy -- one that will thrive on intelligent information. If you think back to the 20th century, it was the century of the carbon economy. Among its winners were the car companies, airplane manufacturers and especially the energy companies. Oil was the lifeblood of the carbon economy. The 21st century will be the era of the information economy. Information -- intelligent information -- will be its currency.

So what exactly is intelligent information? It is certainly insightful, well written text -- just the right legal authority on point from West or a piercing analysis of the credit bubble from Reuters News. But it is not just flat, passive data. Intelligent information also conveys the dynamic nature of the content. It carries metadata, it is self-describing and self-organizing. It is action oriented. Intelligent information from Thomson Reuters enables our customers to make better decisions faster. It gives them the knowledge to act.

I believe the demand for intelligent information will grow for many years to come. Our customers are professionals and the world is professionalizing. The number of professionals worldwide is growing at an unprecedented rate, especially in emerging markets in Asia, the Middle East and South America.

Moreover, physical industries are transforming into information businesses. We've seen this in financial markets as currencies went off the gold standard and started trading electronically. A current example is the pharmaceutical industry. When I visited the headquarters of our Scientific business in Philadelphia recently, we discussed how the Pharma industry used to be a chemical compound discovery and manufacturing business. Now it's all about decoding, analyzing and manipulating the human genome. As information becomes more central to what professionals do, the intelligent information we deliver will be more valuable than ever to the professional decision makers we serve.

So, Thomson Reuters can provide intelligent information and there will be a growing demand for it. But why will our customers pay for it? Because they are professionals, and professionals will pay for just the right information, intelligent information, delivered at just the right time and place in their workflow. Actually they will pay you to give them less information, but precisely the right information.

It’s like weather. None of us would pay for tomorrow's weather forecast. We can get it free from many sources online, on television, in the papers. But if you are a major insurer, you will pay for a long-range hurricane forecast if it helps you gain advantage in your underwriting business.

That's why professionals in the businesses we serve will pay for intelligent information. And that is also why the time is right for us to step up to a leadership position in the information economy. We have all the right assets, a strong balance sheet and great people.

To get there, we need to all work together. We will do that as one company. Not two divisions, not several strategic business units, but one company.

I have three priorities for our company. The first is to deliver a flawless integration. There is no greater value to be delivered than bringing our best talent, technology and assets together to better serve our customers and achieve profitable growth for us. This will be a core focus for me, for Devin Wenig, who is running our Markets Division (where the heaviest integration work will take place), and for our other Executive Committee colleagues. The second priority is globalization, a huge opportunity for us. We have very strong businesses in North America, but over the coming years greater growth will come from emerging markets such as Brazil, the Middle East, India and China. Our Financial, Media and Scientific businesses are already global. My goal is to get our rightful share of global growth for our other units as well.

Third, the whole must be greater than the sum of the parts. If we view our strategic business units as stand-alone businesses or vertical pillars, they are very impressive. But we can accomplish even more by leveraging capabilities across businesses and focusing on a few carefully chosen horizontal capabilities such as the world’s best professional search, news and content management platforms. A great example of this is the way our Tax & Accounting business is already leveraging the Novus platform, developed by our North American Legal business, in their industry-leading Checkpoint product.

That is where I will focus in the months ahead. Here’s what I ask of you: first, stay focused on driving the business and serving your customers -- but be open to change and new ideas that can help you be even more successful at doing this. Second, help me promote and celebrate the values that Thomson and Reuters already stand for and that will be hallmarks of our new company. Those values are:

• Customers are the heart of everything we do
• Business is global
• People make the difference
• Performance matters.

In addition to these values, we are committed to upholding the Reuters Trust Principles of integrity, independence, freedom from bias and leadership in news and information.

Today we are one company, Thomson Reuters. An incredible opportunity awaits us – the chance to be the leader of the information economy. I have absolutely no doubt that we can deliver on this vision.

Regards,

Tom Glocer

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