Thomson Reuters fails intelligent information test

The newly-merged Thomson Reuters combo made an inauspicious start to its first day's trading yesterday. Brokers, spooked by the rising tide of red ink and job losses in the investment banking sector, responded with a clamour of sell notes, sending shares in the company tumbling on its market debut.

But just how far did the stock fall? The answer to that depends on which market data terminals you use. While Thomson Reuters screens showed a steep drop of 14.6%, Bloomberg calculated a more forgiving 9.3% decline.

The disparity was caused by a miscalculation on behalf of Reuters corporate actions group, which had misread the opening price at £18.26. Bloomberg was rather closer to the mark, pricing the shares at £17.20. By the end of trading, both screens agreed on a closing price of £15.60.

The launch of Thomson Reuters was marked by a lavish multi-million dollar advertising campaign exalting in the media group's pre-eminence as a vendor of 'intelligent information'. Funny that, isn't it?