Reuters, the news and information group is to be bought out by Thomson, the Canadian financial data provider, in a deal with a value of £8.7bn.
Reuters Founders Share Company, which has the authority to stop a change of ownership, supports the deal, however it still requires regulatory clearance and shareholder approval.
Reuters and Thomson expect that the deal will save them £250m a year. The newly merged Thomson and Reuters would be in a better position to compete with their major rival, Bloomberg.
The two merged companies, or Thomson-Reuters as it will be known, will provide news and financial data on stocks, currencies and bonds to banks, traders and brokerages.
It is expected that the news group will have annual revenues of about $12bn and 49,000 staff.
Tom Glocer, Reuters boss, is to head the larger company, and Richard Harrington, Thomson president and chief executive, will retire.
