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Thomson Reuters announces 3,200 job cuts over two years
MONTREAL, Dec 5, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Financial data and news agency Thomson
Reuters announced Tuesday cuts of 3,200 jobs and dozens of office closures
worldwide over the next two years as part of a restructuring.
Executives told an investor conference in Toronto that the staff reduction
would impact 12 percent of its workforce, while the number of its offices
would be reduced by 30 percent to 133 locations.
“The majority of employees have already been notified,” spokesman David
Crundwell told AFP.
He said Thomson Reuters routinely looks to streamline its operations.
“This disciplined approach sometimes includes the need to make personnel, or
other, changes which allow us to balance our internal resources with the
needs of our customers in a highly competitive environment,” he said.
The markets welcomed the company’s cutbacks, sending Thomson Reuters stock
up 1.17 percent to $50.40 at around 1830 GMT in Toronto and New York.
The announcement comes after the company sold a 55 percent stake in its
financial and risk unit to private equity firm Blackstone Group in order to
focus on its legal and tax businesses.
Thomson Reuters is also one of the world’s largest news services, ahead of
The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse, but its news operations
account for only six percent of the company’s total revenues.
Last month, it reorganized its European news bureaus, laying off
journalists in France, Germany and Italy.
Newswire clients including newspapers, television, radio and online have
been struggling with an erosion of readership and plummeting advertising
revenues.
In October, AFP announced cuts of 125 positions or five percent of its
workforce over five years in a bid to return to black.
BSS/AFP/HR/0950