Three sources familiar with the situation said recently that the U.S. private-equity firm Blackstone Group is conducting intensive negotiations to acquire about 55% of Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk Unit (F & R) for more than $ 17bn, Reuters reported. If agreed upon, Blackstone is expected to become a direct competitor to Dow Jones, a unit of News Corp. and Bloomberg. Sources said the board of Thomson Reuters met on Tuesday (January 30) to discuss Blackstone's proposal for a full cash offer to the F & R department. F & R provides news, data and analysis to banks and investment institutions around the world. The unit accounts for more than 50% of Thomson Reuters' annual revenue. If the board agreed to reach an agreement with Blackstone, it would be the largest consolidation ever made by Thomas Reuters since Thomson Group acquired Thomson Reuters 10 years ago. In 2008, Canada's Thomson Group acquired Reuters for a total of 8.7 billion pounds, at a prevailing exchange rate of 17 billion U.S. dollars.According to the acquisition terms given by Blackstone, Thomson Reuters will retain 45% of the F & R business as part of Blackstone's cooperation program. Reuters cannot determine the leadership of the new company. Thomson Reuters will retain Reuters International News Services, as well as the legal, tax and accounting departments. Reuters is expected to continue providing news to EIKON, the core product of the F & R business, and other products, but the details have not yet been finalized. With this agreement, Blackstone will be the direct competitor to Dow Jones, a unit of Bloomberg and News Corp., through this investment in providing data services, analytics and trading instruments to Wall Street. Blackstone has some experience in the field of information services. The company acquired IPREO for less than $ 1 billion in 2014 and sells professional software that tracks capital market activity. Currently, the Thomson family in Canada controls more than 63% of Thomson Reuters through WOOD BRIDGE CO LTD. Thomson Reuters has a market capitalization of approximately $ 31 billion and its shares are traded on the New York and Toronto stock exchanges.