reported higher third-quarter revenue and raised its full-year targets as strong sales of its products and new revenue from generative artificial intelligence helped the company beat analysts’ profit expectations.
During the quarter, Thomson Reuters closed deals to buy Safe Sign Technologies and Materia, both of which are startups working on applying AI to specific legal, tax, accounting and audit professionals, and has spent US$2.2-billion on deals over the past 18 months. Thomson Reuters has about US$10-billion it could spend buying companies through 2027. “We’d like to continue to do those types of acquisitions,” Mr. Hasker said in an interview.
Profit was US$301-million, or 67 US cents per share, compared with US$367-million or 80 US cents in the same quarter last year. All three of the company’s core divisions reported significant increases in revenue year-over-year, led by a 12-per-cent increase in the corporate unit, boosted by the company’s acquisition of digital invoicing specialist Pagero Group AB. Legal revenue rose 8 per cent, and the tax and accounting division was up 9 per cent.
Looking ahead, Mr. Hasker said the outcome of the U.S. election matters to Thomson Reuters’s clients, with implications for trade, tax and economic performance. “I’m not here to say one will be better than the other,” he said. “But I think that they’re fairly stark choices.”