Microsoft to take 4% stake in London Stock Exchange Group | Financial Times
US tech giant to provide data analytics and cloud products in 10-year strategic partnership
✒ On the one hand, LSEG has become primarily a data company, indices and price data matter more to it than share trading. Data aggregation has led to transactions such as the purchase of Refinitiv data business and FTSE International. Tie-ups with cloud giants are a natural next step.
On the other hand, Microsoft as the US tech giant gets to extend stake-taking to larger customers. Exchanges are lucrative albeit demanding customers for its requirements on bulk storage and rapid analytics. The strategic partnership will bring a minimum cloud-related spend of $2.8 billion over 10 years.
Both Microsoft and LSEG say the deal is not exclusive. But regulatory scrutiny is expected.