Woodbridge names new CEO
COO David Binet to replace Geoff Beattie in top job on Jan. 1
Woodbridge Company Ltd., the private holding company that manages the Thomson family’s multi-billion-dollar assets, is making a management change at the very top.
Geoff Beattie, at the helm of Woodbridge since 1998, will step down on Dec. 31.
Woodbridge owns stakes in the Globe and Mail newspaper as well as a 55-per-cent stake in Thomson Reuters, a global news and financial information company.
David Binet, who is currently Woodbridge’s chief operating officer, will replace Beattie as president and CEO on Jan. 1, 2013.
Binet was also appointed to the board of directors of Thomson Reuters this week.
Prior to joining Woodbridge, Binet was a partner at law firm Torys, where his practice focused on mergers and acquisitions and corporate finance.
Beattie will stay on as deputy chairman of Thomson Reuters, which employs more than 60,000 people and operates in more than 100 countries.
“Woodbridge has experienced a period of growth and change under Geoff’s tenure, including the acquisition of Reuters by Thomson Reuters,” David Thomson, chairman of Woodbridge and Thomson Reuters, said in a written statement.
“We anticipate a continued collaboration with Geoff at Thomson Reuters, which is our largest investment and of fundamental importance to us,” he added.
Some analysts have speculated that the Woodbridge executive change is related to Thomson Reuters, which merged in 2008 and struggles to compete in the aftermath of the financial crisis.
“You wonder if there is going to be some kind of shakeup.” BRYAN YARBROUGH EDWARD JONES ANALYST
Bloomberg reported that UBS analyst Phillip Huang wrote in a note that Woodbridge may be more open to consider options to boost value, including a potential sale of all or parts of the financial and risk segment of Thomson Reuters.
“Over a 10-year period, a five-year period, any way you look at it, Thomson Reuters hasn’t per- formed well as a stock,” said Bryan Yarbrough, an analyst with Edward Jones in St. Louis. “Did they wring any value out of the Reuters deal? You wonder if there is going to be some kind of shakeup.” Yarbrough doesn’t believe it would be a management shakeup at Thomson Reuters, given James Smith just replaced former CEO Tom Glocer in the past year as part of changes where other top executives were also let go. Yarbrough added that Thomson Reuters has been hard hit by the financial crisis, as Wall St. companies reduce staff, then the need for Reuters data terminals decrease. “If you had told me in 2007, by early to mid-2012, we’d be seeing more layoffs on Wall St., I would have told you that you were crazy,” he said. “All the new regulatory and financial regulations means banks can’t take as much risk, so they can’t generate the same type of returns, so the only way is to chop head count.”