Thomson Reuters to Cut 3,000 Jobs

Thomson Reuters is cutting about 3,000 jobs as part of its plan to cut costs.

Spokesman David Girardin said the cuts are mainly in the company’s financial and risk division and represent about 5 percent of the company’s total workforce. The division provides trading information and financial data to investors and operates electronic trading marketplaces.

The eliminations are in addition to job cuts of about 2,500 announced earlier this year.

The news and financial information company also said Tuesday that its third-quarter net income dropped 39 percent. Even so, the company beat Wall Street’s predictions.

For the quarter ending Sept. 30, Thomson Reuters posted a profit attributable to common shareholders of $271 million, or 33 cents per share, down from $441 million, or 53 cents per share, in the same quarter of 2012.

Excluding one-time items, the company earned an adjusted profit of 48 cents per share, which was roughly unchanged compared with a year ago. Revenue fell 3 percent to $3.09 billion from $3.18 billion.

Analysts, on average, expected a profit of 46 cents per share on $3.27 billion in revenue, according to FactSet.

The company backed its previous full-year outlook, saying that it expects revenue growth in the “low single digits.” It also said it will buy back up to $1 billion of its stock by the end of 2014.

Thomson Reuters said it will fund its $1 billion in stock buyback with lower capital spending and possibly by increasing its debt target. The company said it will take a charge of $350 million, mainly in the fourth-quarter of this year, related to the job cuts and other moves designed to speed up its cost-cutting plan.

Thomson Reuters sells market data, news and information to people in the financial, legal, accounting and scientific research industries. The bulk of its revenue comes from subscriptions to those services.

Shares of Thomson Reuters closed up $1.12, or 3.13 percent, to $36.85.