The Thomson Corporation and Reuters Group PLC have announced today that an agreement has been made about its merger. The deal is worth $17.24 billion in cash and stock.

This merger of the second and third-largest financial news companies will be investigated by regulators and will be gearing to hyperactively compete with Bloomberg LP.  Regulators could take up to 9-12 months to approve of the merger.  The joint company will be led by current CEO of Reuters, Tom Glocer.

The Thomson family of Canada will be retaining 53% of the combined company and is selling its higher-education publication arm for $7.75 billion.  Thomson’s financial arm alone makes $2 billion in sales.

Thomson has a strong market presence in America and Reuters has a strong market presence in other countries.  Due to those circumstances, merging the companies truly symbolizes synergy.