Thomson Reuters is to cut 2500 jobs from its underperforming financial and risk division by year end.
News of the cuts comes as the news and data provider unveiled a return to profit of £239 million in the fourth quarter. The redundancies will come with a $100 million severance price tag to be charged off in Q1 2013.
Approximately 1000 salaries will be removed from the payroll upon completion of the sale of Thomson Reuter's corporate services division to Nasdaq OMX. The remainder will come from the decommissioning of older technology as the company moves customers to its new flagship Eikon and Elektron products.
Thomson Reuters core financial and risk division reported flat revenues in the fourth quarter as the unit continued to struggle with a decline in demand for desktop information services during a prolonged economic slump.
Announcing the cuts, chief executive Jim Smith said he expected sales to pick up in the second half of 2013, with the number of installed Eikon desktops up 33% on the third quarter at 33,900 positions.