How it is now, and how it was up until now; a timeline.

I am an ex-Reuters staff member (25+ years) and I am currently employed by Refinitiv. My role has been confirmed as safe. However, I cannot stop thinking about how what has happened has happened in such a short space of time i.e. 10 years.

It flabbergasts me to be honest, but sadly, history will teach us nothing.

Let me elaborate.

The Reuters LT (Glocer/ Wenig) sold David Thomson (DT) a dummy; simple as that. Reuters needed to survive. But what is worse than that is that David Thomson (and his LT) didn’t cover off the correct due diligence during the merger discussions.

Reuters was top heavy then (and before the 2008 financial crisis) threw everything at ‘customer satisfaction’ (and rightly so as the customer was always happy albeit some of the costs were written off) because they ‘could afford it’, but sadly the cash was squandered on this model because Reuters was always fearful of losing its position in the market i.e. competition with Bloomberg etc.

Make no mistake, these companies have made a wad of money, but DT battled to sustain the same delivery that Reuters delivered, and because of the financial crisis, could not sustain it hence finally saying ‘enough’ hence the Blackstone (BS) ‘investment/buy-out’ ten years on (now).

An ex-boss told me something 20 years back i.e. “you cannot manage/determine a structure or profitable business from the top/down; always bottom/up” and I agree.

DT managed top down, and BS are now doing the same thing and have no idea what happens at the coal face. The BS-LT are trying to manage top-down with no idea how the bottom rung of the ladder works and that frightens me terribly. The 250M saving on tech was just such a spin as I know 100% that BS do not know 100% how the ex-Reuters/TR ‘structure’ works.

Us losing key staff now (outsourcing/off-shoring/redundancies) will hurt BS and they will 100% get hammered because of the lack of due diligence. A few thousand this month, a few thousand next; sure, easy wins (to save money i.e. top/down), but I strongly suspect this deal will not hold water for longer than 24 months max.

If we think this is bad now, God help us all then.

I have the T-shirt.

Good luck all; thoughts and prayers for those not yet told.

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hey @VFnLU64-2fef - same here - could not agree more

Follow up to: VFnLU64-2fef. Couldn't agree more about Risk. Many at top table more interested in promoting their profiles on places like linked IN or any other forum that will lsitern to them. People promoted into positions that have little or no experience, but fit HR policies !!

They will spin off the Risk business as a priority. Lots of good products but very little money and some seriously dumb business leaders running the show.

Having no idea about what happens at the coalface is about right. They've decided to sc-ap my department and while we're not cheap, we earn our keep cleaning c-ap up day in and day out and trying to keep customers engaged and happy.

This whole thing isn't really a surprise. BS aren't a charity. It's just sad to see what's become of a company I once genuinely was proud of working for. I'll miss the fantastic colleagues, but I think getting out now will at least spare me from having to see the last death throes of a once great(ish at least!) organization.

As 74-ms says, this is about breakup and sale. It sounds like most of you have no idea who and what owns you. You are being chopped for parts. These guys are going to manage top down, thin things out and sell it off. No more nicey nicey luxery lifestyles

Frankly TR was so fat and dumb it had to happen at some point...

And i disagree with most of the analysis here except that yeah obviously DT didnt do due diligence. T and R were a poor match, poorly managed and got totally outcompeted by Bloomberg..

Again this is a business, not a charity. And you guys are being sold for your piece parts

Ex-Legal, now Refinitiv employee with 10+ years. 100% agreed. Tradeweb, FX All, Dealing and Matching will be sold. KYC Worldcheck as well and rolling RIF’s will continue for the duration.

The same will happen on TR side. Legal and Tax sold off to other PE firms. My guess is within 5 years neither will be around.

I don't think this is about managing the organization. That's proven to be a lost cause. It's about breaking up the organization into monetizable assets to be sold. Remaining staff are needed to keep the lights on. Investment will be made in areas that enhance asset value - again, to be sold. BS-LT needs to pay down 14b debt and meet debt coverage mandates.

Well said and sums it all up. I would be happy to have a bet that Refinitiv won't be around for as long as some people think. The "excitement" will only get you so far. The cold hard facts are the clients have been disengaged with TR and now Refinitiv for some time. They don't care about the internal machinations, they just want good service and fair and reasonable terms.

The LT assume that all the internal cr*p they are spinning will make life better for the clients. Have the LT lost sight of the fact that we are operating in a very competitive market where the choice for products and services is endless? Our competitors are laughing at us. They say BS don't make bad investments. Well there is always a first time.

This sums it up:

The BS-LT are trying to manage top-down with no idea how the bottom rung of the ladder works

24 mo is acccurate as well

Grat post mate

Thread regarding Thomson Reuters layoffs

How it is now, and how it was up until now; a timeline.

10 replies (most recent on top)

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