Thomson Reuters joins with Symphony to take on Bloomberg
Two rivals to Bloomberg's dominance of trade messaging services are combining capabilities. Thomson Reuters, the news and financial data business, and Symphony, a messaging service start-up backed by a group of banking and financial giants, will offer a "comprehensive and integrated collaboration and workflow solution", said David Gurlé, founder and CEO at Symphony. Reuters' Eikon data and news feeds will be carried by Symphony's messaging service under the partnership. Symphony's platform allows for secure email and voice communication. Symphony has 200,000 licensees in 170 companies. In 2014 it raised $170m in funding and last May BNP Paribas led a further fund-raising round of $63m.
Thomson Reuters has teamed up with investment bank-backed communications firm Symphony and integrated the Eikon desktop with the Symphony messaging platform.

The partnership will allow users to share Thomson Reuters’ Eikon content, news and data through Symphony’s communications service.

Symphony’s messaging platform is used as a replacement for traditional email and voice systems to communicate securely both internally and externally.

Thomson Reuters’ own messaging platform Eikon has long battled with Bloomberg’s Terminal service to be the preferred method of communication for traders.

Symphony raised a total $170 million in 2014, with $66 million coming from a consortium of financial institutions including Bank of America Merrill Lynch, BNY Mellon, BlackRock, Citadel, Citi, Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, Jefferies, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley.

In May this year, BNP Paribas led a further $63 million fund raising round for Symphony to move forward with expansion plans.

David Gurlé, founder and CEO at Symphony, explained the partnership with Thomson Reuters means users can execute entire workflows within the platform.

“This partnership will provide the Symphony community a comprehensive and integrated collaboration and workflow solution,” he said.

The Symphony community currently contains more than 200,000 licences across 170 companies including 40 asset management firms and 25 global banks.

Deb Walton, global managing director of customer propositions at Thomson Reuters, added: “This is about streamlining desktop workflow for our customers by providing access to a powerful and integrated financial technology ecosystem.”