Bad News for the Business Information Crowd

February 17, 2009

The juggernaut of business information has slowed down. The upward growth of revenues for data priced at a premium for analysts, wheeler dealers, and the banking crowd has stalled. Two companies bet heavily that the party would continue past curfew. The bartender, however, shut down early and seems to be working half days. You can read Jay Yarrow’s good summary “Bloomberg and Reuters Clobbered” here. I liked his lead: “This one might need to be filed in the Duh category, but according to analysis by Douglas Taylor, the managing director of consulting group, Burton-Taylor, Bloomberg and Reuters are facing steep revenue losses for 2009.”

I agree.

For those who keep up with this Beyond Search Web log, you will find the story about a company that appears to have an arm’s length relationship with Thomson Reuters germane. Click here to read about the debt burden of Cengage, the former educational and professional publishing unit of Thomson Reuters’ company. If the financial house of cards begins to collapse, it is interesting to think of the impact the shock waves will have. Washington’s appetite to bail out companies may become satiated. The Wall Street bonus payouts and GM’s ultimatum of bankruptcy or more cash are burrs under some folks’ saddles. Now peripheral companies may be sucked into a whirlpool of red ink with no life preserver available.

Stephen Arnold, Februry 17, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.

  • Archives

  • Recent Posts

  • Meta