Thomson Financial has signed a definitive agreement to acquire London-based business news agency AFX from Paris-based Agence France-Presse.
Terms of the transaction were not disclosed, but according to reports the deal is thought to be worth just under $20 million.
Founded in 1990, AFX is a European independent real-time financial news agency providing equity-focused business, financial and economic news to the investment community. The company has 107 employees spread across its head office in London and 12 news bureaux around Europe.
Thomson Financial has been a distributor of AFX's news services for over 10 years and in September 2005 the two firms partnered to launch Thomson Investment Management News.
Donal Smith, president, Europe and Asia, Thomson Financial, says the acquisition of AFX is consistent with a global news strategy to deliver tailored market-specific information to clients in the business and financial communities.
"A targeted financial news service provides our clients with a strategic advantage when tailored to their needs and contextually integrated with our market-leading proprietary content and applications," he adds.
The transaction is expected to close in July 2006 subject to regulatory review in Germany.