Companies

LONDON, May 15 — The trustees charged with overseeing the integrity and independence of the Reuters Group endorsed the sale of the company to the Thomson Corporation of Canada on Tuesday, but the speed with which they acquiesced has upset some employees, who fear that the merger could undermine the quality of Reuters’s journalism. Many financial analysts and investors have reacted favorably to...

The world may be flat, as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman has written, but I always liked to think I was standing on a hill. Now comes the news that pasadenanow.com, a local news site, is recruiting reporters in India. The website’s editor points out that he can get two Indian reporters for a mere $20,800 a year — and no, they won’t be commuting from New Delhi. Since Pasadena’s city...

Canadian publisher Thomson Corp has agreed to buy Reuters for about £8.7 billion ($17.2 billion), creating the world’s leading provider of news and data for professional markets. Reuters Founders Share Company, which has the power to block a change of ownership at the 156-year-old company, backed the deal but it still needs regulatory clearance and shareholder approval, Thomson and Reuters said in...

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- It's media merger mania all over again on Wall Street. With News Corp (Charts, Fortune 500). making an unsolicited $5 billion offer for Dow Jones (Charts), Thomson hoping to buy Reuters in a merger worth $17.5 billion and potential deals in the works to take Clear Channel Communications, Cablevision and Tribune private, it would seem to be a great time for investors to...

LOS ANGELES: A local news Web site's editor who hired two reporters in India to cover suburban Pasadena said he's been so overwhelmed by handling reaction to his plan that he had to postpone publication of their first stories. James Macpherson said he hasn't found the time he hoped to have to train one of his new staffers to cover Monday night's City Council meeting, which is shown live on the Web...

LOS ANGELES: A local news Web site’s editor who hired two reporters in India to cover suburban Pasadena said he’s been so overwhelmed by handling reaction to his plan that he had to postpone publication of their first stories. James Macpherson said he hasn’t found the time he hoped to have to train one of his new staffers to cover Monday night’s City Council meeting, which is shown live on the Web...

MOUNTAIN VIEW, California (Reuters) - Google Inc. has become more comfortable doing big acquisitions but still sees small technology deals as its primary thrust for buying businesses, its chief executive said on Thursday. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told reporters at a briefing at Google headquarters that the Web search leader remained open to buying larger companies, as it has done twice in...

May 11 (Bloomberg) -- Thomson Corp. agreed to sell its textbook and educational testing for $7.75 billion in cash to fund its $17.5 billion offer for Reuters Group Plc and create the biggest financial news and information company. Apax Partners, a London-based buyout firm, and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System agreed to buy Thomson Learning and Nelson Canada, Thomson said today in...

PASADENA, Calif: The job posting was a head-scratcher: “We seek a newspaper journalist based in India to report on the city government and political scene of Pasadena, California, USA.” A reporter half a world away covering local street-light contracts and sewer repairs? A reporter who has never gotten closer to Pasadena than the telecast of the Rose Bowl parade? Outsourcing first claimed...

When is local journalism not really local? When it’s about Pasadena and written by someone in India. James Macpherson, editor and publisher of the Pasadena Now website, hired two reporters last weekend to cover the Pasadena City Council. One lives in Mumbai and will be paid $12,000 a year. The other will work in Bangalore for $7,200. The council broadcasts its meetings on the Web. From nearly 9...