Reuters breaks news that Sanofi has reached agreement in principle to buy Genzyme

Reuters was first to report on Feb 15 that France’s Sanofi-Aventis had reached an agreement in principle to buy U.S. biotech Genzyme Corp for about $19 billion in cash, plus a future payout tied to the performance of an experimental Genzyme drug. The deal has been one of the hottest takeover sagas in the last six months, and Reuters has dominated several key turns in the talks, drawing a flood of calls from traders making bets on the outcome. The latest scoop pushed Genzyme shares up 3.6 percent and boosted Sanofi’s U.S.-listed shares by 1.9 percent. The Reuters story was quoted by Dow Jones and CNBC. It ran exclusively for nearly an hour before the Wall Street Journal got its own confirmation, followed by Bloomberg which credited Reuters for breaking the news. The New York Times also credited Reuters for the rise in the stock.