Thomson Reuters Closes $1.25-Bln Deal Selling Health Care Unit To Veritas Capital

Thomson Reuters Corp. (NYSE: TRI) will sell its Ann Arbor, Mich.-based health care unit to private equity firm Veritas Capital Management LLC for $1.25 billion.

The divestment, which was announced Monday, is a move by the company to focus more on its core global businesses, especially its market-research unit that was the focus of restructuring last year. Analysts have questioned the company's increased focus on financial markets at a time when banks are cutting costs, according to the Wall Street Journal.

Thomson Reuters Healthcare provides data and analytics to clients in the health care industry in a fashion similar to the company's market-research tools. The health care business products are aimed at providing data and analytics to help reduce costs. Clients include hospitals, insurers, government agencies and individual health care professionsals.The unit reported $450 million in revenue in 2010.

The health care business provides its customers with solutions to identify savings, improve outcomes, fight fraud and abuse and more efficiently manage their healthcare operations, Reuters said in its announcement.

The company attempted to sell its health care business last year, but was unable to attract sufficient interest.

Robert McKeon, chairman of Veritas, said in the announcement that the acquisition allows Veritas to build on its experience in health care analytics.

In February, Thomson Reuters announced it was selling three smaller units that garnered $155 million in revenue in 2011: Property Tax Services ($100 million); Legal Publishing ($45 million); and eXimius ($10 million), a client-asset management software platform.

Frank Golden, Thomson Reuters vice president for investor relations, said earlier this year during the unveiling of the 2011 annual report that the company expected these units to be sold by mid-year.

Shares of Thomson Reuters Corp. (USA) rose 36 cents to $28.83 in midday trading.