Thomson Financial acquires AFX news from Agence France-Presse.

Thomson Financial (New York) has signed a definitive agreement to acquire AFX News Ltd. (London), a real-time financial news agency providing equity-focused business, financial and economic news to the investment community, from Agence France-Presse (Paris) for approximately $20 million. The deal is expected to close in July subject to regulatory approval.

AFX News provides international economic news coverage to professionals and private investor communities, including professional traders, trading floors, corporate financiers, analysts, private bankers and financial advisors, in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch. AFX covers the world with a focus on Europe. The company operates 13 news bureaus and its products are available directly from AFX or via all common open news platforms.

Thomson said the purchase complements its existing news and analysis services, including Thomson Merger News, Thomson Investment Management News and International Financing Review. The company said it will invest "appropriately" to develop and create a new, differentiated real-time financial news service in Europe. The service will provide coverage of multiple asset classes and combine real-time financial news with sector-specific commentary and analysis. The new service will be integrated with Thomson ONE and delivered to existing AFX clients. Thomson ONE includes Thomson Datasteam historical rimes series content, Thomson First Call earnings estimates and Thomson SDC deals and private equity content.