Energy market professionals can now leverage an enterprise-grade instant messaging application with access to the global trading communities who currently rely on Yahoo! Messenger. Reuters Messaging 6.0 substantially increases Reuters exposure to the energy markets, as traders and analysts will now be able to take advantage of the full range of collaboration services designed to help improve their trading security, speed and efficiency.

Reuters Messaging 6.0 enables energy market professionals to gain real-time access to their market counterparts globally across front, middle and back offices, increasing the efficiency of pre-trade discussion, post-trade scheduling, transportation and logistics. It also allows energy traders to quickly post prices to Platts daily via Reuters Messaging, a key source of energy pricing data.

With the introduction of IM connectivity to Yahoo! Messenger, Reuters Messaging 6.0 offers the ability send text based messages, view presence, and access conversation history between networks by signing into one service. In addition to connectivity to Yahoo! Messenger, Reuters Messaging 6.0 adds tools to graphically share market data and insight with market counterparts. Reuters Messaging is the first enterprise instant messaging service to connect to the three leading public instant messaging networks providing extended reach to the financial community.

David Gurle, Global Head of Reuters Collaboration Services, says: "The energy sector is one of the most dynamic trading markets in the world. Customer feedback has shown us that energy professionals have a real need to deploy collaboration tools that significantly enhance pre- and post-trading exchanges in real-time. By partnering with Yahoo!, Reuters is first to deliver an enterprise class collaboration service to put robust content and real-time communication tools at the fingertips of energy market professionals worldwide."

Jeff Bonforte, Senior Director, Real Time Communications, Yahoo! Inc., says: "Yahoo! is a leader in driving industry-wide interoperability forward and we are pleased to provide high-quality interoperability between Yahoo! Messenger and Reuters users to enhance productivity and collaboration for energy market professionals. Yahoo! Messenger users have the unique flexibility to connect with people across various major consumer and enterprise IM communities and we will continue to work with market leaders like Reuters who share our commitment to providing a safe and convenient experience for IM users."

Irvine Schelkis, PVM Oil, states: "Increased visibility, speed of communication and accurate execution with our clients and across trading desks is critical to our business. With Reuters Messaging, we have integrated real-time collaboration of information within the front, and back office workflow and benefited from faster trade execution and improved accuracy and trade reconciliation."