Microsoft purchases 4% stake in London Stock Exchange for 10-year cloud deal
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Microsoft plans to purchase a 4% ownership in the London Stock Exchange (LSEG) for a deal worth $2 billion that will expand the tech giant's influence into European financial institutions.
The stock exchange made the announcement on Monday without outlining the specific details of the deal; however, the partnership will allow LSEG to use cloud-computing infrastructure to help boost profits via Microsoft products such as Azure, AI, and Teams.
LSEG will invest at least $2.8 billion into Microsoft's cloud products over the course of a decade. Moreover, the technology company's executive vice president, Scott Guthrie, who oversees Microsoft's cloud and AI programming, will be made a non-executive director of LSEG.
Following the announcement, LSEG’s shares increased by 4% in Europe as both sides heralded the deal as a long-term partnership.
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Microsoft signed a 10-year deal with the London Stock Exchange on Monday that will involve the use of the company's cloud-computing software. (iStock / iStock)
"This strategic partnership is a significant milestone on LSEG’s journey towards becoming the leading global financial markets infrastructure and data business, and will transform the experience for our customers," said David Schwimmer, CEO of LSEG, in a statement
"It's a long term partnership. In terms of the products we will be building together, I would expect our customers to start to see the benefits of that 18 to 24 months out, and we will continue building from there," Schwimmer added in a statement, according to Reuters.
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The deal will also authorize Microsoft to work with LSEG to develop new business collaboration tools for customers as well as combine LSEG's data analytics program, Workspace, with Microsoft Teams.
"Advances in the cloud and AI will fundamentally transform how financial institutions research, interact, and transact across asset classes, and adapt to changing market conditions," said Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella in a statement.