Microsoft buys 4% stake in LSE.

Microsoft has agreed to buy a £1.5bn stake in London Stock Exchange Group as part of a 10-year strategic partnership, in the latest incursion by Big Tech into the operation of global markets. Microsoft will acquire the 4 per cent stake in LSEG from Blackstone, Thomson Reuters, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. As part of the deal, Microsoft will provide LSEG with data analytics and cloud infrastructure products using its Azure, AI and Teams platforms. It will also use Teams, Microsoft’s messaging platform, to create a unified service that combines financial data, analytics and collaboration tools.

«We don’t like to surprise our regulators,» he said, adding that «this is not about Microsoft having control over LSEG». The two companies intend to use Microsoft’s machine-learning capabilities to help investment groups create financial models. «The race to the cloud has accelerated through and post Covid,» said George O’Connor, IT sector analyst at stockbroker Goodbody, describing it as an «arms race» between Microsoft, Amazon and Google to win deals. Microsoft expects to generate $5bn in revenue through the 10-year partnership.

«This allows Microsoft to provide more vertical expertise than ever before,» said Judson Althoff, the US group’s chief commercial officer.

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