It has been a difficult road to approval for LSE which announced its deal to acquire Refinitiv last year. Antitrust challenges have resulted in major changes, including its sale of Borsa Italiana to Euronext. The company also agreed to allow competitors access to its clearing and data operations for a decade.
In the time since the deal’s announcement, other companies have taken notice of LSE's move to acquire a major financial data provider. In fact, just this week, S&P Global said it had made a deal to purchase IHS Markit at a $44 billion dollar valuation.
While the announcement by S&P signals that the market for financial data is about to become even more competitive, the approval of LSE’s purchase of Refinitiv is still a major win for the company after a long delay.