I hope you will all excuse my silence over the past few weeks as I was busy reaching our historic agreement with Thomson Corp. and at least in my little world nothing else seemed as important to comment upon.

Now that the basic information is out I just want to say how excited I am about the combination of Reuters and Thomson. I believe it will be a great pairing for our customers our shareholders and our employees. Much still lies ahead of us to realize the dream but I can already say how proud and honored I am to have been asked to lead this new company – the media company for the 21st century.