The Europeans certainly take antitrust laws a good deal more seriously than the Americans. Oracle and Sun Microsystems are learning this the hard way, as Microsoft did before them.
Now, consider Thomson Reuters. Surely, the media and information giant has competitors, like the company named for the guy who just bought himself a third term as New York’s mayor. Still, the European Commission has opened an investigation into potentially anticompetitive practices on the part of the company.
It seems that the EC doesn’t much like that Thomson Reuters doesn’t allow its proprietary Reuters Instrument Codes—which identify securities for banking and trading software—to be mapped to other companies’ proprietary codes, which do the same thing. And, the EC says in a statement, “without the possibility of such mapping, customers may potentially be ‘locked’-in to working with Thomson Reuters because replacing RICs by reconfiguring or by rewriting their software applications can be a long and costly procedure.”
So it’s not that Thomson keeps other data providers from doing the same thing it does. And it’s not that Reuters wrote trading software in an evil bid to keep its customers “locked”-in. It’s that banks and others wrote their software and built their systems around RICs, without allowing for the possibility that they might want to change their data provider some day.
Say what you will about antitrust laws, but if saving companies from their own stupidity and short-sightedness is the goal, the EC’s competition czars have a hell of a lot more to do. And why didn’t this come up last year, when Thomson bought Reuters?
EU Opens Thomson Reuters Probe [WSJ]
EU starts investigation into Reuters datafeed tool [Reuters]
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 12:19PM
john I have no idea what you just wrote. Frankly you are an asshole.
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 12:30PM
That headline could sum up the whole origin and outcomes of the credit crisis, really.
Just sayin'
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 12:31PM
@1 - I came here to say the same thing. I read this twice and still have no idea what it is about.
Albert Einstein
Posted by merkin capital partners , Nov 10, 2009 12:32PM
tyler durden?
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 12:48PM
The EU is Ayn Rand stories incarnate. God save us.
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 12:53PM
Greg, I knew you were still here!
How in the hell are you? How's Mom?
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 12:59PM
Hey Shaz Wow feel free to step it up anytime. Your newness is wearing off and I'm afraid you're looking at a one way ticket to Gregsville if you don't bring the "A" game real soon.
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 1:13PM
Jon -
Greg has the market cornered on authoring incomprehensible posts. So please don't even try to aspire to what he did. You can't shine my son's shoes. You douche.
Fondly,
Mom
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 1:15PM
does the new guy make a good point here? absolutely.
does this post read any better than Greg's? not this time, Shazbot.
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 1:42PM
Shazar, you have to remember that for most of us, Excel is our first language, English is our second. We have no problem using 13 spreadsheets at the same time but we struggle when sentences are much more than 13 words.
Oh, and obviously Bess filled you in on the Greg Situation. Don't be that guy.
Thanks,
DB Commentariat
Posted by Anal_yst , Nov 10, 2009 1:51PM
Second @10
Shaz is still in the "trial" phase IMO so I've reserved judgement, but its still up in the air at this point. Not everything is gonna be gold, and I don't think most of us expect it to, but this was not The Shaz' best work.
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 1:56PM
Shazar the Shazarian -
I'm going to have the window washers swing back and forth across your window all day, while spreading a thin but uneven coat of vaseline.
- Jeff Macke Wannabe
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 2:00PM
Shaz -
I'm going to stand behind you on the subway and softly whistle the theme from "Gilligan's Island."
You won't be able to get it out of your head for several days.
-Jeff Macke Wannabe
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 2:01PM
I'm Winston Wolfe. I solve problems.
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 2:11PM
John -
I'm going to give your name and address to the Jehova's Witnesses and tell them that in our last AA meeting together you expressed an eagerness to learn the true path to Salvation.
-Jeff Macke Wannabe
Posted by guest , Nov 10, 2009 2:25PM
OK everyone settle down now. We all know that this post smells worse than a full up porta john at the Florida State fair on a hot august afternoon. We all fuck up now and then. The question is can the boy recover? I say after the disaster that was Greg we owe Shazman the benefit of the doubt. My money is on the Shaz, because statisically it would be improbable that DB has fucked up again and found Greg part II. Therefore I think this little literary abortion is just an accident in much the same way a person shits themselves when they only planned to fart. Shit happens - literally. So get up Jon Shazar and change into some new boxers and show us what you're really made of. However Jon, if this is the rule and not the exception life for you is going to get real shitty, real fast.