Canadian publisher Thomson Corp. has agreed to acquire British media giant Reuters Group Plc for 8.7 billion pounds ($17.23 billion) to become the world's largest financial information service provider, the two said Tuesday.

The combination of Thomson and Reuters will surpass Bloomberg L.P. of the United States that is currently the top player in the financial information service market.

The combined revenues of Thomson and Reuters totaled some $12 billion last year, with their employees numbering about 49,000.

The deal is part of a growing global realignment of media organizations affected by the worldwide diffusion of the Internet, while demand has grown for financial information services. In another move, media giant News Corp. has made a bid to acquire U.S. financial wire service Dow Jones & Co.

Thomson and Reuters news and financial businesses will be called Reuters.