NEW YORK (Reuters) - Blackstone Group LP (N:BX) President Tony James said on Thursday the future of the Thomson Reuters (TO:TRI) (N:TRI) Financial and Risk business is in data, not in selling terminal desktop products to traders, bankers and investors.
"We're big believers in data and that's certainly a driver behind the Thomson Reuters business," James said in a call with analysts after Blackstone's fourth-quarter earnings, when asked how the firm was looking at opportunities in data technology and how it might expand its expertise in that area.
"The most valuable part of that business by far is the data part. The terminals are the legacy business for which people think of them but that's not where the future of that company is," said James, without giving any further details.
U.S. private equity firm Blackstone this week agreed to buy a majority stake in the Financial and Risk business of Thomson Reuters Corp (N:TRI) (TO:TRI) in a $20 billion deal. Thomson Reuters is the parent company of Reuters News.