London Stock Exchange Eyes Acquisition of Refinitiv

In one of the biggest bets yet on data as a new source of growth for global exchange operators, the London Stock Exchange Group PLC confirmed advanced talks to buy financial-information and terminal business Refinitiv Holdings Ltd. from a Blackstone Group Inc.-led consortium for almost $15 billion. According to a story in The Wall Street Journal, Refinitiv would give LSE access to its array of data and analytical tools such as the Eikon financial-data terminal and other products that are used by more than 40,000 customers, including brokerage firms, institutional investors, governments and corporations. Refinitiv also operates the Tradeweb, FXAll and matching platforms that handle on average daily trading volume of over $400 billion in foreign exchange and $500 billion in fixed income.