Thomson Reuters posts 33 pct 1Q profit decline

NEW YORK (AP) - Thomson Reuters Corp. said Tuesday its first-quarter profit fell 33 percent as some of its businesses have failed to recover fully from the effects of the recession.

Cutbacks last year at the law firms and financial companies Thomson Reuters sells services to mean fewer subscription contracts providing steady income.

The company reiterated its forecast for 2010, expecting revenue will be flat to slightly down for the year.

"The tentative recovery in our net sales that we began to see in the second half of 2009 has firmed and accelerated in the first quarter of 2010," CEO Thomas Glocer said in a statement.

Overall, the news and information provider earned $127 million, or 15 cents per share, in the January-March period, compared with $190 million, or 23 cents per share, a year earlier.

Stripping out one-time items, the company says it would have earned 36 cents per share, down from 40 cents in the year-earlier quarter. Analysts, who typically exclude items, expected 31 cents per share, according to a Thomson Reuters survey.

Revenue held steady at $3.1 billion, matching the average forecast.

In the company's professional division, which includes services for the legal, tax and accounting, and health care and science markets, revenue climbed 2 percent to $1.3 billion. But operating profit in the division slipped 8 percent to $289 million.

The markets division, including the Reuters news service and data products for traders, had flat revenue of about $1.8 billion. Operating profit slid 4 percent to $323 million.