Reuters blames profit drop on financial package

Reuters has blamed its poor take-up of its financial information product and software services for a three per cent drop in pre-tax profits.

Profit from the Instinet equities dealing product fell as new rules brought more competitors into the US market. Installation rates of Reuters 3000 - which competes with Bloomberg in offering data to fund managers - have slowed and revenue from Reuters' software subsidiary, Tibco, fell by five per cent over the same quarter last year.

The media giant claims installation of Reuters 3000 is slow only because customers are waiting for millennium and euro-compliant versions. A spokesman said: "Some millennium versions are now available in some countries but all the products within the 3000 series will be compliant and fully rolled out by the middle of September." He added that third quarter results should reflect that.

The spokesman also claimed the fall in profits at Tibco has been a result of reinvestment. "It has been making a lot of investment in new opportunities in the push technology market," he said.