The London Stock Exchange said it's in talks to buy Refinitiv, the financial data provider that The Blackstone Group just last year carved out of Thomson Reuters (which retained a 45% stake).
Why it matters: This would put the British bourse in direct competition with Bloomberg's terminals business.
- ROI: Blackstone's deal valued Refinitiv at around $20 billion, while LSE reportedly is working on a $27 billion price-tag (including around $12 billion in assumed debt). Blackstone already spun off Refinitiv's Tradeweb bond-trading business via an IPO this past April.
- The bottom line: "Exchanges are just data platforms." — Mike Santoli, CNBC
