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In October 1851 Paul Julius Reuter, a German-born immigrant, opened an office in the City of London which transmitted stock market quotations between London and Paris via the new Calais-Dover cable. Two years earlier he had used pigeons to fly stock prices between Aachen and Brussels, a service which operated for a year until the gap in the telegraph link was closed.

Reuters, as the agency soon became known, eventually extended its service to the whole British press as well as to other European countries. It also expanded the content to include general and economic news from all around the world. The reputation of its service was enhanced by a succession of reporting scoops. For example, in 1865 Reuters was first in Europe with news of President Lincoln’s assassination in the United States.

As overland telegraph and undersea cable facilities developed, the business expanded beyond Europe to include the Far East in 1872 and South America in 1874. In 1883 Reuters began to use a ‘column printer’ to transmit messages electrically to London newspapers and in 1923 pioneered the use of radio to transmit news internationally. In 1927 it introduced the teleprinter to distribute news to London newspapers.

In 1925 the Press Association, the UK press agency, took a majority holding in Reuters Ltd. and in 1939 the company moved its corporate headquarters to its present location at 85 Fleet Street, London.

During both World Wars, Reuters came under pressure from the British government to serve British interests. In 1941 Reuters deflected this pressure by restructuring itself as a private company. The new owners, the British national and provincial press, formed the Reuters Trust, with independent trustees. The Trust preserves Reuters independence and neutrality. The principles of the Trust were maintained and the power to enforce them was strengthened when Reuters became a public company in 1984. (See Reuters Independence and Trust Principles).

Reuters continued to modernise rapidly in the latter half of the 20th century. The introduction of a succession of computerised products for international traders transformed the business. The Stockmaster service (1964), which transmitted financial data internationally, quickly proved a success and began this transformation.

In 1973 a further innovative development was the launch of the Reuter Monitor which created an electronic marketplace for foreign exchange. This service expanded to carry news and prices covering securities, commodities and money and was further enhanced in 1981 with the launch of the Reuter Monitor Dealing Service.

Following a dramatic increase in profitability, Reuters was floated as a public company in 1984 on the London Stock Exchange and on NASDAQ in the US. On listing, the Company had a market capitalisation of some £700 million. Subsequently, Reuters made a series of acquisitions including Visnews (1985 - renamed Reuters Television), Instinet (1986), TIBCO (formerly Teknekron) and Quotron (both in 1994).

Reuters continued to grow rapidly, widening the range of its business products and expanding its global reporting network for media, financial and economic services. Recent key product launches include Equities 2000 (1987), Dealing 2000-2 (1992), Business Briefing (1994), Reuters Television for the financial markets (1994), 3000 Series (1996) and the Reuters 3000 Xtra service (1999).

In 1995, Reuters established its ‘Greenhouse Fund’ to take minority investments in a range of start-up technology companies, initially in the United States. In July 1999 TIBCO Software completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters retains a substantial proportion of the shares. Reuters announced in early 2000 a range of major initiatives designed to accelerate its use of internet technologies, open new markets and migrate its core business to an internet-based model. In May 2001 Instinet completed an IPO on NASDAQ; Reuters retains the majority of the shares.

In October 2001 Reuters completed the largest acquisition in its history, strengthening its presence in the US equities marketplace with the purchase of most of the assets of Bridge Information Systems.

In 2002, the financial markets slumped into their most severe downturn for over fifty years. Reuters revenues started to decline and, for the first time since its flotation in 1984, the company recorded a pre-tax loss for the year.

Early in 2003, the company announced a three year programme - Fast Forward - to make Reuters more competitive, less complex, more focused on customer service and more efficient, with a target of achieving total cost savings of £440 million over four years. Reuters acquired Multex.com, Inc., a provider of company financial information, to underline its renewed commitment to being a content company. New, easier-to-use versions of 3000 Xtra and Bridge Station were offered to customers and the Reuters Market Data System was established as the market standard in trading room systems.

In April and August 2003, news cameramen Taras Protsyuk and Mazen Dana were lost at the hands of the US forces in Iraq.

February 2004 saw Reuters reduce its stake in TIBCO Systems Inc (TSI) to 8.8% , through a combination of public offering and a sale of shares back to TSI, for aggregate net proceeds of c.£311 million. This contributed to a 51% increase in Reuters Group Operating Profit to £197 million. Instinet returned to profit for the first time in three years.

The company introduced two key new products:

• Reuters Trader, a new real time price data and news service for traders and salespeople, to replace the old 2000 series products
• Reuters Knowledge, an in-depth company information and consensus estimates service for investment bankers and research professionals.

On 1st October 2004, Sir Christopher Hogg retired as Reuters Group Chairman, after 19 years. Niall Fitzgerald was appointed as his successor.

During 2004, the company was saddened by the loss of yet two more news cameramen; Adlan Khasanov in Chechnya, in May, and Dhia Najim in Iraq, in November.