For a company that makes much of its money from professionals in globalised markets moving capital across borders at high speed, Thomson Reuters became oddly bogged down by a more parochial investment approach.

When Thomson Corp, the family-controlled Canadian data group, swooped on Reuters in the summer of 2007, it knew that some UK investors would have trouble holding the paper in its half-cash, half-shares £7.9bn ($12.9bn) offer.