May 4 (Bloomberg) -- Reuters Group Plc, the world's largest publicly traded provider of financial data, said it received a takeover approach from a company it didn't identify.

The stock surged a record 25 percent, boosting the market value to 7.75 billion pounds ($15.4 billion), after London-based Reuters said in a statement it may get an offer. Thomson Corp. is in talks to buy Reuters, the Toronto-based Globe and Mail said, citing unidentified people close to the companies. Thomson spokesman Jason Stewart wouldn't confirm or deny the report.

Reuters, with 17,000 employees and 196 news bureaus, has about 23 percent of the market for financial data. Thomson, owner of the Westlaw legal database and TradeWeb, makes 80 percent of its revenue selling electronic information. Both companies compete with Dow Jones & Co., which received a $5 billion bid from Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. three days ago.

``By the nature of their two businesses, they're a good mix,'' said Paul Harris, a fund manager at Avenue Investment Management in Toronto, which oversees about C$100 million ($90 million). ``Thomson, if they want to grow their financial services business, has to do something like this.''

Shares of Reuters climbed 123.5 pence to 615.75 pence in London. Steve Clarke, a spokesman for Reuters, declined to comment beyond the company's statement.

Market Share

Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, competes with Reuters in selling news, information and trading systems to the financial services industry. Bloomberg also competes with Thomson, which is based in Toronto and operates out of Stamford, Connecticut. The Thomson family partly owns the Globe and Mail.

``Bloomberg is not involved with this and is not interested in looking at either company at this time,'' said Judith Czelusniak, a spokeswoman for Bloomberg LP in New York.

Thomson has about 11 percent of the global market for financial data, compared with 33 percent for Bloomberg LP, according to Inside Market Data.

Credit-default swaps based on 10 million euros of Reuters debt jumped 19,500 euros to 41,000 euros, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Credit-default swaps are based on corporate bonds and are used to speculate on a company's ability to repay debt. An increase indicates worsening perceptions of credit quality.

Homing Pigeons

Reuters was founded in 1851 by Paul Julius Reuter, who used homing pigeons to carry news of the Crimean War. It first sold shares to the public in 1984, and now has about 370,000 users, according to the company's Web site.

Any bidder will need to contend with a takeover defense.

Reuters said it protects its editorial independence and integrity through the ``Founders Share,'' which holds special voting powers to stop anyone attempting to take control of the company. The Founders Share is able to veto any resolution it doesn't support and force through any resolution it backs. The company's constitution also limits an individual shareholding to no more than 15 percent of the total issued capital.

``I don't think these provisions need to be a barrier to a deal,'' because the news division can be protected from external influences, said Rob Orman, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland in London.

Thomson, once among the world's largest newspaper publishers, is shedding its learning unit, a division that may fetch as much as $5.5 billion net of tax, according to TD Newcrest analyst Vince Valentini. Last year, Thomson formed an agreement with Associated Press to offer more news stories along with its financial data.

Highs and Lows

``The obvious candidate would be Thomson,'' said Norman Pearlstine, an adviser on media for the Carlyle Group. Pearlstine, the former editor-in-chief at Time Warner Inc., said he would be ``surprised'' if the approach had come from a private-equity bidder.

Reuters shares soared as high as 1,623 pence at the peak of the Internet boom in March 2000. The stock slumped as low as 95.38 pence three years later as investors sold technology stocks and the company's sales declined.

Tom Glocer became chief executive in 2001. He closed more than 80 units and sold assets including electronic broker Instinet Group Inc. to cut costs. Glocer, 47, is currently two years into a three-year program to increase revenue with more products for the derivatives, fixed-income and currency markets.

Terminal Sales

Revenue growth is now being driven by sales to larger trading clients, Glocer said April 25. Profit at the five biggest U.S. securities firms, including Morgan Stanley, totaled a record $9.7 billion in the first quarter.

Reuters generates about two-thirds of its 2.57 billion pounds of annual revenue from selling terminals to banks, traders and financial institutions. The company provides financial analysis and data, as well as news content to newspapers.

Revenue at Reuters fell 1.1 percent to 626 million pounds in the three months to March 31 as the dollar's decline eroded the value of sales. Excluding currencies and acquisitions, the company had revenue growth of 6.5 percent.

The number of Reuters's most expensive terminals in use, the 3000 Xtra, increased to 117,000 in the first quarter from 112,000 at the end of December and 103,000 a year earlier.

Reuters maintained its forecast for full-year revenue to grow at least 6 percent, excluding acquisitions, asset sales and currency effects, compared with 4.8 percent in 2006.

To contact the reporter on this story: Zimri Smith in London at zsmith@bloomberg.net; Mark Herlihy in London at Mherlihy1@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: May 4, 2007 13:26 EDT