BRIDGE DECLARES REUTERS WINNER OF AUCTION.

Reuters (London) has won its bid to acquire certain assets from Bridge Information Systems, Inc. (St. Louis, MO). Bridge has been in reorganization proceedings under Chapter 11 since earlier this year.

Reuters has agreed to pay $275 million for a number of Bridge assets, including: Bridge Information Systems (BIS; North America), a producer of a range of products targeted to institutional equities traders and portfolio managers; EJV, which provides bond pricing, data and analytical services; Bridge Trading Technologies, a unit that supplies software, information and transaction services for brokers and their clients; eBridge, its Internet unit; and, CRB Index, a measure of U.S. commodity prices.

Among the assets Reuters chose not to acquire are the ADP retail equity information business, Telerate, BIS outside North America, BridgeNews, the company's commodity business, and Bridge's interest in Australian unit Bridge/DFS. However, Reuters. said it will be entitled to share in the proceeds of any sale by Bridge of Tele-rate or Bridge's European or Asian business operations.

Reuters estimates that 2000 revenue for the businesses it will acquire was approximately $435 million. Bridge said that it had a total net loss for all its operations of $106 million in 2000. Losses for the businesses acquired by Reuters was estimated at $72 million.

Reuters ceo Peter Job said "our goal for this acquisition is simple: turn these Bridge assets around and provide real benefits to customers...this is a significant step for our U.S. business." Established in 1979, Bridge expanded through acquisitions, including the purchase of EJV Partners in 1995, the financial information division of Knight-Ridder for $275 million in 1996 and Dow Jones Markets (Telerate) from Dow Jones for $510 million, including $150 in Bridge stock, in 1998.