At this time of the year, it’s always a worthwhile exercise to take a look at how some of our industry barometers have performed as they hit the halfway point. For (I think) obvious reasons, my favourite indicators are the results of Thomson Reuters Markets, Fidessa and NYSE Technologies, each of which posted interim results in the past week or so. 
A quiet break in Perigord Vert, just an hour or so inland from Bordeaux, was transformed into a blizzard of electronic messaging by the ‘shock’ departure of Devin Wenig, CEO of Thomson Reuters Markets, two weeks ago. Missives from the far reaches of the Delaney Network – via email, text, Linked-In, Facebook and Twitter – poured into my iPhone, my only contact with the outside world.
Every few years I feel the compulsion to write a rant – known these days as a blog – about the problem with standards, and in particular standards relating to financial information. Usually, this is sparked by some new initiative to get competing vendors to live together peacefully so the marketplace can reap the benefits of streamlined systems communication and reduced opportunity to price gauging.
It’s been quite a week for market data personnel changes, what with Thomson Reuters’ appointment of a new head of its Sales & Trading group, and its naming of Mike Powell to take over as head of content over in the Enterprise group. Next, it seems, is the turn of the brokers. And I don’t mean traders, I mean brokers, interdealer brokers, and their highly lucrative market data groups. 
Filling a longstanding void at the top of its Sales & Trading business unit, Thomson Reuters has named former IBM general manager for banking and financial markets Shanker Ramamurthy as president, Sales & Trading, effective June 20. The top slot at Thomson Reuters’ largest operating unit, with revenues of $3.5 billion and 2,700 staff, had been open since the departure of Mark Redwood almost a year ago (see more 
The idea that Google would be interested in – and is indeed seeking to – acquire Thomson Reuters Markets first came to my attention at the London Stock Exchange, oddly enough. I was there for a function, and after a panel discussion about the future of the exchange marketplace, I got chatting with a gentleman from hedge fund Marshall Wace, who suggested Google could solve our market’s connectivity and hosting issues at the drop of a hat; it just needed a catalyst to show it how the world works.
Okay, it’s a stretch, but bear with me…
Fans of TV’s Seinfeld will surely recall the episode in which Jerry’s friend George Costanza gets caught double-dipping his chip in the dip at a funeral reception (watch the episode 
We read the latest CESR advice on transaction reporting with alarm. In short, it suggested that the market had failed to find its own solution to the challenge of transaction reporting in a fragmented liquidity environment.
The benefit of operating on the ground is, of course, that you get to figure what’s really going on. None of this learning vicariously through various media, like this one. The real deal.
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By Ross Inglis
As a long-time former employee of Thomson Reuters (over 14 years), I took little pleasure in seeing the changes announced last month. It has been a difficult period following the acquisition of Reuters by the Thomson Corporation and it has not been made any easier by upheaval in the world’s financial markets and economies.
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