Have you heard of the NASDAQ OMX? How about Thomson Reuters? If you haven’t, well, have you seen what trillions of dollars can do? Honestly, I have no idea what trillions of dollars can do also. These financial giants are global leaders.
Thomson Reuters claims they are “the world’s leading source of intelligent information for business professionals.” What they do is similar to CNN or NBC or FOX except their focus is Financial Markets and other “Business Stuff”.
NASDAQ OMX is the world’s largest exchange company and the home of more than 3400 industry leaders. (Industry leaders means companies)
Who owns NASDAQ OMX?
NASDAQ OMX is owned by “NASDAQ OMX Group, Inc”. This company has over 2,500 employees and total assets of $14.09 Billion. They own and operate the NASDAQ exchange and about 8 other exchanges throughout the world. The NASDAQ for example has a market cap of $4.45 Trillion. (Yes, lots and lots of zeros… like 28% of the whole United States nominal GDP) In other words, this company is very powerful in the financial world!
Who owns Thomson Reuters?
Historically, no single individual has been permitted to own more than 15% of Reuters, under the first of the Reuters Principles, which states, “Reuters shall at no time pass into the hands of any one interest, group or faction.” This restriction was waived for a family holding company, Woodbridge Company which owns 53%. The principle was waived because of the poor financial circumstances.
The Nasdaq OMX has completed the acquisition of the corporate services division of Thomson Reuters. There are two perspectives with this news. The first is that NASDAQ OMX will be able to have more specialized knowledge, use best practices and serve their customers and business partners to the best of their abilities. The second perspective is that leverage has been gained towards the Thomson Reuters Corporation. This leverage can be used to swing markets certain ways, pressure journalists to write about specific topics etc. An analogy I can think of is: how would you feel about your children watching TV, if one of the largest Cigarette companies (Philip Morris International) owned a division of the Disney Channel?
GOOD BUSINESS 