MS Forms 10-Year Partnership with London Stock Exchange...Acquires 4% Stake

[Image source=Reuters Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy New York=Special Correspondent Joselgina] Microsoft (MS) has acquired approximately a 4% stake in the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG) and signed a partnership agreement for investment and cooperation over the next 10 years.

According to the financial media CNBC on the 12th (local time), LSEG confirmed this fact in a statement issued that day.

The future partnership includes cloud computing support through MS's cloud service Azure, and the establishment of new data infrastructure for LSEG's next-generation data analysis and modeling solutions.

MS agreed to purchase about a 4% stake in LSEG from Blackstone and the Thomson Reuters consortium. The deal is valued at approximately ?1.492 billion (about 2.4 trillion KRW).

LSEG also plans to invest up to $2.8 billion in MS's cloud-related products over the next 10 years. Additionally, both parties confirmed that Scott Guthrie, MS Cloud & AI Group Executive Vice President, will be appointed as a non-executive director of LSEG.

David Schwimmer, CEO of LSEG, stated, "This strategic partnership will be an important milestone in our journey to lead global financial market infrastructure and data business." Satya Nadella, CEO of MS, emphasized, "More advanced cloud and AI technologies will fundamentally transform how financial institutions conduct research, interact, and trade across their operations."

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) evaluated the deal as "reflecting the increasing use of data and technology in global finance," and noted that "one of Europe's largest exchanges is combining with one of the largest technology companies in the United States." Previously, Google also invested $1 billion last year in CME Group, a futures trading company, and signed a contract to move its core trading system to the cloud. Nasdaq also announced it will migrate North American market data to Amazon Web Services' cloud service platform.

Meanwhile, on the New York Stock Exchange that day, MS's stock price was trading above $249.9, up more than 1.8% from the previous close.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.