Glocer Replaced by Smith as Thomson Reuters CEO
Tom Glocer, Chief Executive of Thomson Reuters (NYSE:TRI), is stepping down from his post at the year’s end, following a fall in stock prices since the past few months. Tom will be replaced by James Smith, Chief Operating Officer at Reuters, who has run several of the firm’s operations successfully.
The information and news broadcast firm has undergone a series of physical changes and management changes over the recent six months, in order to address the performance of its Market business, which greatly serves financial institutions.
Glocer in a statement on Thursday said that by the years end the firms strategy and budget work that Glocer lead, will come to an end and the plan of transactions that was initiated by him last summer has achieved its aims.
Thomson Reuters also did reaffirm its 2011 outlook but said that it excluded any one time charges linked to the restructuring. The company refused to provide further details.
Smith, 52, an Ex-journalist who joined Reuters in 1987, was the head of Professional unit previously, which markets legal accounting and tax products. The Professional business which was a Thomson Corp unit, since the merger with Reuters had constantly outperformed market operations, which was mainly Reuters business area.
Smith is the former head of newspaper operations at Thomson U.S., during his services, the firm became among the first media companies to shift from the falling newspaper business towards focusing on electronic publishing.
Glocer, 52, is credited with saving Reuters about ten years ago through a sweeping cost cutting strategy, when the firm’s performance and share price slumped after the dotcom bust. Glocer later planned the takeover by Thomson Corp for close to $17.2 billion, a 40 percent premium to Reuter’s stock price at the time. Glocer became the first in Reuters tradition in 2001 to take over British companies as the first American and non-journalist CEO.
David Thomson, Chairman of Thomson Reuters, said that Glocer will be remembered as the person who turned fortunes for Reuters about a decade ago, led the firm to growth and guided its merger to form Thomson Reuters. Smith has a remarkable career in the firm already and will be a strong leader for the firm, he added.
Thomson Reuters stock has fallen 36 percent to $26.88 from February’s $42 this year, as the financial and banking customers laid off thousands of employees and slashed costs. Sales of the fresh flagship desktop financial products for clients, Ekion, have also disappointed, placing pressure on the shares.
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Post Written By: Ed Liston
Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht. |