Q2 2026 Thomson Reuters Corp Earnings Call
Operator: Good day everyone, and welcome to the Thomson Reuters Q2 earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gary Bisbee, Head of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Speaker #1: Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Thomson Reuters second quarter earnings call. Today's conference is being recorded. At this time, I'd like to turn the conference over to Mr. Gary Bisbee, Head of Investor Relations.
Speaker #1: Please go ahead.
Speaker #2: Thanks, Jennifer. Good morning, and thanks, everybody, for joining us today for our second quarter of 2026 earnings call. I'm joined by our CEO, Steve Hasker, and our CFO, Gary Bishop.
Gary Bisbee: Thanks, Jennifer. Good morning, and thanks everybody for joining us today for our Q2 2026 earnings call. I'm joined by our CEO, Steve Hasker, and our CFO, Gary Bischoping. Steve and Gary will discuss our results. Then we'll take your questions following the prepared remarks. To enable us to get to as many questions as possible, we would appreciate if you'd limit yourself to one question and one follow-up each when we open the phone line. Throughout today's presentation, when we compare performance period on period, we discuss revenue growth before currency as well as on an organic basis. We believe this provides the best basis to measure the underlying performance of the business. Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and non-IFRS and other supplementary financial measures, which are discussed on this special note slide.
Speaker #2: Steve and Gary will discuss our results, and then we'll take your questions following the prayer remarks. To enable us to get to as many questions as possible, we would appreciate it if you'd limit yourself to one question and one follow-up each when we open the phone line.
Speaker #2: Throughout today's presentation, when we compare performance period on period, we discuss revenue growth before currency as well as on an organic basis. We believe this provides the best basis to measure the underlying performance of the business.
Speaker #2: Today's presentation contains forward-looking statements and non-IFRS and other supplementary financial measures, which are discussed on this special note slide. Actual results may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties discussed in reports and filings that we provide.
Gary Bisbee: Actual results may differ materially due to a number of risks and uncertainties discussed in reports and filings that we provide to regulatory agencies. You may access these documents on our website or by contacting our investor relations department. Let me now turn it over to Steve Hasker.
Speaker #2: The regulatory agencies. You may access these documents on our website, or by contacting our investor relations department. Let me now turn it over to Steve Hasker.
Speaker #3: Thank you, Gary, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. Our strong start to 2026 continued in the second quarter. With revenue growth ahead of our prior expectations and margins in line, total company organic revenues rose 8%, with the Big Three accelerating to 10% organic growth, up from 9% in recent quarters.
Steve Hasker: Thank you, Gary, and thanks to all of you for joining us today. Our strong start to 2026 continued in the Q2, with revenue growth ahead of our prior expectations and margins in line. Total company organic revenues rose 8%, with the Big Three accelerating to 10% organic growth, up from 9% in recent quarters. The acceleration was driven by legal professionals and corporates, which both also accelerated to 10%, up from 9% last quarter. We are raising our full-year 2026 outlook for total and organic revenue growth to approximately 8%, or the high end of the prior 7.5% to 8% range. We're also raising our Big Three total and organic revenue outlooks to a range of 9.5% to 10%, up from the prior approximately 9.5%. We continue to forecast margins rising year over year to approximately 40%.
Speaker #3: The acceleration was driven by legal professionals and corporates, which both also accelerated to 10%, up from 9% last quarter. We are raising our full year 2026 outlook for total and organic revenue growth to approximately 8%, or the high end of the prior 7.5% to 8% range.
Speaker #3: We're also raising our Big Three total and organic revenue outlooks to a range of 9.5% to 10%, up from the prior approximately 9.5%. We continue to forecast margins rising year over year to approximately 40%.
Speaker #3: On July 14th, we were pleased to announce the signing of a definitive agreement with KKR to form a joint venture to operate the global print business.
Steve Hasker: On 14 July, we were pleased to announce the signing of a definitive agreement with KKR to form a joint venture to operate the Global Print business, where we will sell a 51% stake for approximately $500 million. We are excited about this transaction, which will sharpen our focus on content-powered AI solutions serving fiduciaries, while setting up an independent business to serve our customers' print needs. The transaction provides attractive proceeds to TR and will be modestly accretive to organic revenue growth. Gary will provide additional details in a few minutes. We continue to invest heavily and remain encouraged by the growing success of our innovation engines. Commercial momentum across our AI-enabled offerings continues to build, and our pipeline of features and offerings in development continues to grow.
Speaker #3: We will sell a 51% stake for approximately $500 million. We're excited about this transaction, which will sharpen our focus on content-powered AI solutions serving fiduciaries, while setting up an independent business to serve our customers' print needs.
Speaker #3: The transaction provides attractive proceeds to TR, and will be modestly accretive to organic revenue growth. Gary will provide additional details in a few minutes.
Speaker #3: We continue to invest heavily and remain encouraged by the growing success of our innovation engines. Commercial momentum across our AI-enabled offerings continues to build, and our pipeline of features and offerings in development continues to grow.
Speaker #3: In a moment, I'll provide an update on Thomson, our proprietary large language model, which we see as an increasingly important tool to deliver accurate, and cost-effective AI solutions.
Steve Hasker: In a moment, I will provide an update on Thomson, our proprietary large language model, which we see as an increasingly important tool to deliver accurate and cost-effective AI solutions. In addition, I will highlight the successful completion of the next generation CoCounsel Legal beta, the introduction of AI-driven capabilities into ONESOURCE, and our excitement about a next generation version of CoCounsel for Tax and Audit currently in development. To support our product investments, last month, we launched The CoCo, our largest brand campaign in more than a decade, to accelerate awareness and demand for CoCounsel. The campaign reinforces our differentiated position in professional AI by highlighting what our customers value most: trusted, fiduciary grade AI grounded in authoritative content, domain expertise, and the accountability required in professional workflows. Our capital capacity and liquidity remain a key asset that we are focused on deploying to create shareholder value.
Speaker #3: In addition, I'll highlight the successful completion of the next generation co-counsel legal beta, the introduction of AI-driven capabilities into ONESOURCE, and our excitement about a next generation version of co-counsel for tax and audit currently in development.
Speaker #3: To support our product investments last month, we launched the COCO, our largest brand campaign in more than a decade, to accelerate awareness and demand for co-counsel.
Speaker #3: The campaign reinforces our differentiated position in professional AI by highlighting what our customers value most: trusted, fiduciary-grade AI, grounded in authoritative content, domain expertise, and the accountability required in professional workflows.
Speaker #3: Our capital capacity and liquidity remain a key asset, that we are focused on deploying to create shareholder value. When we made solid progress on this during the quarter, in May, we executed a $605 million return of capital, and on July 21st, we completed the $600 million share repurchase program announced in February.
Steve Hasker: We made solid progress on this during the quarter. In May, we executed a $605 million return of capital, and on 21 July, we completed the $600 million share repurchase program announced in February. Together, these transactions have reduced our share count by approximately 3%. We remain committed to a balanced capital allocation approach, and we continue to assess a number of inorganic opportunities. With approximately $9 billion of estimated capital capacity through 2028, we are positioned to be both aggressive and opportunistic. Turning to the Q2 results by segment, the Big Three segments accelerated to 10% organic revenue growth, up from 9% in recent quarters. Legal organic revenue accelerated to 10%, driven by continued strong law firms' momentum and improved government growth. Legal, excluding government, continued to grow at the 11% pace we saw in Q1, driven by momentum from Westlaw and CoCounsel Legal.
Speaker #3: Together, these transactions have reduced our share count by approximately 3%. We remain committed to a balanced capital allocation approach, and we continue to assess a number of inorganic opportunities.
Speaker #3: With approximately $9 billion of estimated capital capacity through 2028, we are positioned to be both aggressive and opportunistic. Turning to the second quarter results by segment, the Big Three segments accelerated to 10% organic revenue growth, up from 9% in recent quarters.
Speaker #3: Legal organic revenue accelerated to 10%, driven by continued strong law firms momentum and improved government growth. Legal excluding government continued to grow at the 11% pace we saw in Q1, driven by momentum from Westlaw and co-counsel legal.
Speaker #3: Corporates' organic revenue accelerated sequentially to 10%, driven by offerings in our legal tax and risk portfolios, and the segment's international businesses. Figueiro was particularly strong and continues to drive market share gains for Thomson Reuters in the transactional compliance space.
Steve Hasker: Corporate's organic revenue accelerated sequentially to 10%, driven by offerings in our legal, tax, and risk portfolios, and the segment's international businesses. Pagero was particularly strong and continues to drive market share gains for Thomson Reuters in the transactional compliance space. A recent significant Pagero win with Google is one example. Tax, Audit, and Accounting organic revenues grew 8%, driven by CoCounsel for Tax and Audit, our Latin American business, and SafeSend. Reuters' organic revenues rose 4%, driven by growth in the agency business and our contract with LSEG. Lastly, Global Print organic revenues declined 3% year-on-year, in line with our expectations. In summary, we are pleased with the building revenue momentum we have delivered in the H1 2026. I will now discuss our continued portfolio evolution and provide several product innovation updates. The Global Print transaction I mentioned earlier continues the positive evolution of our portfolio.
Speaker #3: A recent significant Figueiro win with Google is one example. Tax audit and accounting organic revenues grew 8%, driven by co-counsel for tax and audit, a Latin American business and safe cent.
Speaker #3: Reuters' organic revenues rose 4%, driven by growth in the agency business and our contract with LSEG. Lastly, global print organic revenues declined 3% year over year, in line with our expectations.
Speaker #3: And in summary, we're pleased with the building revenue momentum we've delivered in the first half of 2026. I'll now discuss our continued portfolio evolution and provide several product innovation updates.
Speaker #3: The global print transaction I mentioned earlier continues the positive evolution of our portfolio. As you know, we have invested heavily in innovation in recent years, both organic and through strategic M&A.
Steve Hasker: As you know, we have invested heavily in innovation in recent years, both organic and through strategic M&A. We've also pursued targeted divestitures, including Elite, FindLaw, and now a majority stake in Global Print. These efforts leave us with a stronger, more focused, and more strategically aligned portfolio, with improved growth prospects versus the TR of just a few years ago. Adjusting our last 12 months' performance for the Global Print transaction, the big three segments would contribute 87% of our revenue, up from 81% in 2023. Our big three revenue growth has accelerated from 7% in 2023 to 9% on a last 12 months basis, and we remain focused on building upon the 10% growth this quarter. Total TR improved from 6% in 2023 to 8% on a last 12 months basis.
Speaker #3: We've also pursued targeted divestitures, including Elite, Findlaw, and now a majority stake in global print. These efforts leave us with a stronger, more focused, and more strategically aligned portfolio, with improved growth prospects versus the TR of just a few years ago.
Speaker #3: Adjusting our last 12 months' performance for the global print transaction, the Big Three segments would contribute 87% of our revenue, up from 81% in 2023.
Speaker #3: Our Big Three revenue growth has accelerated from 7% in 2023 to 9% on a last 12 months' basis, and we remain focused on building upon the 10% growth this quarter.
Speaker #3: Total TR improved from 6% in 2023 to 8% on a last 12 months' basis. The quality of our revenue mix has also improved, with recurring revenue rising to 86% of total on an as-adjusted basis, up 6 percentage points from 2023.
Steve Hasker: The quality of our revenue mix has also improved, with recurring revenue rising to 86% of total on an as-adjusted basis, up six percentage points from 2023. When including repeat transactional revenue, we have good visibility into over 90% of our annual revenue. Looking forward, our focus remains on driving an accelerating pace of innovation as we deliver authoritative content-powered AI solutions that provide fiduciary-grade outcomes for our professional customers and markets. Let me close with a few thoughts on our innovation roadmap. If this chart looks familiar, it is an updated version of one we shared a year ago. Like last year, we are delivering a significant portfolio of innovation in 2026, including new offerings, additional capabilities, and geographic expansion. Let me share a few highlights.
Speaker #3: When including repeat transactional revenue, we have good visibility into over 90% of our annual revenue. Looking forward, our focus remains on driving an accelerating pace of innovation as we deliver authoritative content-powered AI solutions that provide fiduciary-grade outcomes for our professional customers and markets.
Speaker #3: Let me close with a few thoughts on our innovation roadmap. If this chart looks familiar, it is an updated version of one we shared a year ago.
Speaker #3: Like last year, we are delivering a significant portfolio of innovation in 2026, including new offerings, additional capabilities, and geographic expansion. Let me share a few highlights.
Speaker #3: In June, due to the strength of customer feedback, we completed the beta for the new generation version of co-counsel legal ahead of schedule. And began providing early access to all existing co-counsel legal customers.
Steve Hasker: In June, due to the strength of customer feedback, we completed the beta for the new generation version of CoCounsel Legal ahead of schedule. Began providing early access to all existing CoCounsel Legal customers. Customer usage is ramping, and we remain on track for the broader launch by the end of this month. Outside of Legal, we have added several AI features into our ONESOURCE portfolio, including touchless compliance, which automates the creation of US sales and use tax returns, and AI research for global trade, which leverages our authoritative content to simplify trade research. Pagero has continued its geographic coverage expansion with the addition of five more countries, including France, Poland, and Belgium, building on its market leadership position. We are working on an agentic next-generation version of CoCounsel for tax and audit expected this fall. Let me now provide an exciting update on Thomson.
Speaker #3: Customer usage is ramping, and we remain on track for the broader launch by the end of this month. Outside of legal, we have added several AI features into our ONESOURCE portfolio, including touchless compliance, which automates the creation of US sales and use tax returns, and AI research for global trade, which leverages our authoritative content to simplify trade research.
Speaker #3: Figueiro has continued its geographic coverage expansion, with the addition of five more countries, including France, Poland, and Belgium, building on its market leadership position.
Speaker #3: And we are working on an agentic next-generation version of co-counsel for tax and audit, expected this fall. Let me now provide an exciting update on Thomson.
Speaker #3: As a reminder, in mid-2024, we made a modest but highly strategic acquisition of SafeSign Technologies, a startup that was developing legal-specific large language models.
Steve Hasker: As a reminder, in mid-2024, we made a modest but highly strategic acquisition of SafeSign Technologies, a startup that was developing legal-specific large language models. Over the last two years, highly talented teams from SafeSign and TR Labs have continued the development of these models, leveraging TR content and expertise along the way. They recently completed development of the first production-ready version of the model, which we call Thomson. Joel Hron, our Chief Technology Officer, recently issued a blog post discussing the results of a detailed benchmarking study of Thomson-1. Despite relatively modest investment of approximately $40 million and training Thomson on less than 10% of our legal content to date, the benchmarking study indicates that Thomson delivers results on par with the latest versions of the leading frontier models on a broad range of general domain tasks.
Speaker #3: Over the last two years, highly talented teams from SafeSign and TR Labs have continued the development of these models. Leveraging TR content and expertise along the way.
Speaker #3: They recently completed development of the first production-ready version of the model, which we call Thomson. Joel Heron, our Chief Technology Officer, recently issued a blog post discussing the results of a detailed benchmarking study of Thomson ONE.
Speaker #3: Despite relatively modest investment of approximately $40 million, and training Thomson on less than 10% of our legal content to date, the benchmarking study indicates that Thomson delivers results on par with the latest versions of the leading frontier models on a broad range of general domain tasks.
Speaker #3: And as expected, Thomson performs strongly for legal tasks. With further improvement potential as we add more TR legal content. This best-in-class performance is delivered at a meaningfully lower cost, and in many cases, at significantly reduced latency versus third-party models.
Steve Hasker: As expected, Thomson performs strongly for legal tasks, with further improvement potential as we add more TR legal content. This best-in-class performance is delivered at a meaningfully lower cost, and in many cases, at significantly reduced latency versus third-party models. One might ask how we can deliver results on par with frontier models at a fraction of the cost. The answer lies with our content and our expertise. When building on leading open-source models, the quality and sophistication of training data matters far more than the volume of data used. Our deep repositories of expert-curated or authoritative content across Westlaw, Practical Law, and Reuters are a key advantage, as are our attorney editors and practice experts. The benchmarking results embolden our strategy for Thomson and provide growing confidence in its potential.
Speaker #3: One might ask how we can deliver results on par with frontier models at a fraction of the cost. The answer lies with our content and our expertise.
Speaker #3: When building on leading open-source models, the quality and sophistication of training data matters far more than the volume of data used. Our deep repositories of expert-curated, authoritative content across Westlaw, practical law, and Reuters are a key advantage as are our attorney editors and practice experts.
Speaker #3: The benchmarking results embolden our strategy for Thomson and provide growing confidence in its potential. We're on track to power tabular analysis, a bulk document review tool in co-counsel legal, with Thomson later this month.
Steve Hasker: We're on track to power tabular analysis, a bulk document review tool in CoCounsel Legal, with Thomson later this month. We see an opportunity to port over a broader range of capabilities in the future to leverage Thomson's cost and speed advantages. In addition, initial conversations with our largest and most sophisticated customers indicate potential for additional commercialization opportunities. The success to date with Thomson demonstrates the value of our content, expertise, and talent in this AI environment. It also provides important optionality for TR as we work to deliver market-leading and cost-effective AI solutions for our professional markets. I'll now turn it over to Gary for a review of our financial results.
Speaker #3: And we see an opportunity to port over a broader range of capabilities in the future to leverage Thomson's cost and speed advantages. In addition, initial conversations with our largest and most sophisticated customers indicate potential for additional commercialization opportunities.
Speaker #3: The success to date with Thomson demonstrates the value of our content expertise and talent in this AI environment. It also provides important optionality for TR as we work to deliver market-leading and cost-effective AI solutions for our professional markets.
Speaker #3: I'll now turn it over to Gary for a review of our financial results.
Speaker #2: Thanks, Steve. As a reminder, throughout my remarks, I will talk to revenue growth before currency, and on an organic basis. Second quarter organic revenues grew 8%.
Gary Bischoping: Thanks, Steve. As a reminder, throughout my remarks, I will talk to revenue growth before currency and on an organic basis. Q2 organic revenues grew 8%. Organic recurring and transactional revenue grew 9% and 11%, respectively, while print revenues declined 3%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10% to $745 million, with a margin of 38.1%. Moving to the Big Three, organic revenue growth accelerated to 10% in Q2, improving from the 9% pace in recent quarters. Legal Professionals organic revenue accelerated to 10%, as underlying law firm momentum continued and government growth improved sequentially. Key drivers from a product perspective remain Westlaw and CoCounsel Legal. Legal Professionals, excluding government, again grew 11%, matching the Q1 growth rate and up 9% in H2 2025. The strength was broad-based with our large, mid, small law, and international subsegments all at or near record growth rates.
Speaker #2: Organic recurring and transactional revenue grew 9% and 11%, respectively, while print revenues declined 3%. Adjusted EBITDA increased 10% to $745 million, with a margin of 38.1%.
Speaker #2: Moving to the Big Three, organic revenue growth accelerated to 10% in the second quarter, improving from the 9% pace in recent quarters. Legal Professionals' organic revenue accelerated to 10% as underlying law firm momentum continued, and government growth improved sequentially.
Speaker #2: Key drivers from a product perspective remain Westlaw and co-counsel legal. Legal professionals excluding government again grew 11%, matching the first quarter growth rate in up 9% in the second half of 2025.
Speaker #2: The strength was broad-based with our large mid-small law and international subsegments all at or near record growth rates. Government growth improved to 5% year-over-year from 1% in Q1.
Gary Bischoping: Government growth improved to 5% year over year from 1% in Q1, though we anticipate a softer growth rate in Q3 as certain transactional revenue in the quarter is not expected to recur at the same level. Our Corporate segment accelerated to 10% organically, up from 9% in recent quarters. Recurring revenue grew 9%, and transactions revenue grew by an impressive 24%. Pagero, Indirect Tax, CLEAR, CoCounsel Legal, and our international businesses were key contributors. Tax, Audit, and Accounting organic revenue increased 8%. Recurring and transactional revenues grew 9% and 6%, respectively. Our Latin American business CoCounsel for Tax and Audit, SafeSend, and the Cloud Audit Suite of offerings were key drivers.
Speaker #2: Though we anticipate a softer growth rate in Q3, as certain transactional revenue in the quarter is not expected to recur at the same level.
Speaker #2: Our Corporate segment accelerated to 10% organically, up from 9% in recent quarters. Recurring revenue grew 9%, and transactions revenue grew by an impressive 24%.
Speaker #2: Figueiro indirect tax clear co-counsel legal and our international businesses were key contributors. Tax, audit, and accounting organic revenue increased 8%. Recurring and transactional revenues grew 9% and 6% respectively, our Latin America business co-counsel for tax and audit SafeSign in the cloud audit suite of offerings were key drivers.
Speaker #2: The tax audit and accounting second quarter transactional growth rate fell short of our expectations due in part to timing, but also due to go-to-market execution challenges.
Gary Bischoping: The tax, audit, and accounting Q2 transactional growth rate fell short of our expectations, due in part to timing, but also due to go-to-market execution challenges. We have made several talent additions and leadership changes and expect to get back on track in H2. In addition, the Q2 growth rate was again impacted by two product updates that shifted revenue recognition toward H2. This was an approximate 1% drag but is expected to largely normalize in H2. We continue to expect T&A revenue growth to accelerate in H2, driven by rising revenue contribution from our newer AI-driven offerings in the US, a key product line extension at Dominio in Brazil, and the benefit from the revenue recognition timing change I just mentioned.
Speaker #2: We have made several talent additions and leadership changes and expect to get back on track in the second half. In addition, the second quarter growth rate was again impacted by two product updates that shifted revenue recognition toward the second half of the year.
Speaker #2: This was an approximate 1% drag, but is expected to largely normalize in the second half. We continue to expect tap revenue growth to accelerate in second half, driven by rising revenue contribution from our newer AI-driven offerings in the US, a key product line extension at Dominio in Brazil, and the benefit from the revenue recognition timing change I just mentioned.
Speaker #2: Moving to Reuters, our organic revenue rose 4% for the quarter driven primarily by growth from the news agreement with the data and analytics business segment of ELSIG and our agency business.
Gary Bischoping: Moving to Reuters, our organic revenue rose 4% for the quarter, driven primarily by growth from the news agreement with the data and analytics business segment of LSEG and our agency business. Finally, Global Print revenues decreased 3% on an organic basis. On a consolidated basis, Q2 organic revenues increased 8%, slightly ahead of our expectation from a quarter ago. At the end of Q2, the percent of our annualized contract value, or ACV, from products that are GenAI-enabled was 32%, up from 30% last quarter. Turning to our profitability, adjusted EBITDA for the Big Three segments was $691 million, up 12% from prior year period, or 10% constant currency, with a margin of 42.7%. Reuters adjusted EBITDA was $48 million with a margin of 20.8%. Global Print's adjusted EBITDA was $42 million with a margin of 37.7%.
Speaker #2: Finally, global print revenues decreased 3% on an organic basis. On a consolidated basis, second quarter organic revenues increased 8%, slightly ahead of our expectation from a quarter ago.
Speaker #2: At the end of Q2, the percent of our annualized contract value, or ACV, from products that are GenAI-enabled was 32%. Up from 30% last quarter.
Speaker #2: Turning to our profitability, adjusted EBITDA for the Big Three segments was $691 million, up 12% from the prior-year period, or 10% in constant currency, with a margin of 42.7%.
Speaker #2: Reuters adjusted EBITDA was $48 million, with a margin of 20.8%. Global prints adjusted EBITDA was $42 million, with a margin of 37.7%. In aggregate, total company adjusted EBITDA was $745 million, a 10% increase versus Q2 of 2025, reflecting a 30 basis point year-over-year margin increase to 38.1%.
Gary Bischoping: In aggregate, total company adjusted EBITDA was $745 million, a 10% increase versus Q2 of 2025, reflecting a 30-basis-point year-over-year margin increase to 38.1%. Our Q2 results included $8 million of severance expense related to our initiatives to Reimagine How We Work. Turning to earnings per share, adjusted EPS was $0.99, up 14% from $0.87 in the prior year period. Currency added $0.01 to adjusted EPS in the quarter. Let me now turn to our free cash flow. For the Q2, our free cash flow was $727 million, up 29% from $566 million in the prior year period. EBITDA growth and working capital changes were the primary drivers of the year-over-year increase. I will also provide a quick update on several capital allocation items. We completed our $605 million return of capital transaction on 4 May and repurchased $100 million of our shares in the quarter.
Speaker #2: Our Q2 results included $8 million of severance expense related to our initiatives to reimagine Hub. Turning to earnings per share, adjusted EPS was $0.99, up 14% from $0.87 in the prior year period.
Speaker #2: Currency added 1 cent to adjusted EPS in the quarter. Let me now turn to our free cash flow. For the second quarter, our free cash flow was $727 million up 29% from $566 million in the prior year period.
Speaker #2: EBITDA growth and working capital changes were the primary drivers of the year-over-year increase. I'll also provide a quick update on several capital allocation items.
Speaker #2: We completed our $605 million return of capital transaction on May 4th and repurchased $100 million of our shares in the quarter. In July, we repurchased an additional $238 million completing the $600 million NCIB announced in February.
Gary Bischoping: In July, we repurchased an additional $238 million, completing the $600 million NCIB announced in February. In aggregate, these transactions have reduced our share count by approximately 3%. We also paid down $500 million of maturing notes in the quarter. Now let me add some incremental color on the Global Print transactions Steve mentioned. In mid-July, we reached agreement to sell a 51% stake in our Global Print business to KKR for cash proceeds of approximately $500 million. As Steve indicated, we see this as a positive development as it will leave a stronger and more focused portfolio with improved growth and a higher-quality revenue mix. We anticipate the transaction closing in Q4, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. After the close, Global Print will be deconsolidated from our financial statements with our 49% stake treated as an equity method investment.
Speaker #2: In aggregate, these transactions have reduced our share count by approximately 3%. We also paid down $500 million of maturing notes in the quarter. Not only add some incremental color on the global print transactions mentioned.
Speaker #2: In mid-July, we reached agreement to sell a 51% stake in our global print business to KKR for cash proceeds of approximately $500 million. As Steve indicated, we see this as a positive development as it will leave a stronger and more focused portfolio with improved growth and a higher quality revenue mix.
Speaker #2: We anticipate the transaction closing in the fourth quarter, subject to the satisfaction of regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. After the close, global print will be de-consolidated from our financial statements.
Speaker #2: With our 49% stake treated as an equity method investment. Beginning with our Q3 results, we intend to report global print as discontinued operations in our financial statements.
Gary Bischoping: Beginning with our Q3 results, we intend to report Global Print as discontinued operations in our financial statements. To help with your modeling, we plan to issue a schedule with restated historical results based on this discontinued operations treatment ahead of our Q3 report. As part of the transaction, Thomson Reuters will maintain intellectual property rights and full editorial control over its content portfolio. The joint venture will hold an exclusive license to publish and distribute the content in print and on ProView, Global Print's e-book platform. In return, the JV will pay a royalty to Thomson Reuters equivalent to 20% of its professional revenue, which is 85% to 90% of the total Global Print revenue. The royalty will be reported within a new revenue line in our segment reporting. The royalty plus a multi-year transition services agreement will largely offset stranded costs from the separation.
Speaker #2: To help with your modeling, we plan to issue a schedule with restated historical results based on this discontinued operations treatment ahead of our Q3 report.
Speaker #2: As part of the transaction, Thomson Reuters will maintain intellectual property rights and full editorial control over its content portfolio. The joint venture will hold an exclusive license to publish and distribute the content in print on ProView on print and on ProView global prints e-book platform.
Speaker #2: In return, the JV will pay a royalty to Thomson Reuters equivalent to 20% of its professional revenue, which is $85 to 90% of the total global print revenue.
Speaker #2: The royalty will be reported within a new revenue line in our segment reporting. The royalty plus a multi-year transition services agreement will likely offset will largely offset stranded costs from the separation.
Speaker #2: As a result, we see the global print transaction being 60 to 70 basis points accretive to organic growth revenue growth and approximately neutral to our margins following the transaction close.
Gary Bischoping: As a result, we see the Global Print transaction being 60 to 70 basis points accretive to organic growth, revenue growth, and approximately neutral to our margins following the transaction close. I will conclude with a few thoughts on our outlook. Let me start by noting that our guidance is based on the current reporting format, including the Global Print segment. Following the close of the transaction, we will update our outlook to incorporate the financial impact. As Steve outlined, we are raising our full-year outlook for both total
Speaker #2: I'll conclude with my thought with a few thoughts on our outlook. Let me start by noting that our guidance is based on the current reporting format including the global print segment.
Speaker #2: Following the close of the transaction, we will update our outlook to incorporate the financial impact. As Steve outlined, we are raising our full-year outlook for both total and organic revenue growth to the high end of the prior 7.5% to 8% ranges.
Gary Bischoping: Organic revenue growth to the high end of the prior 7.5% to 8% ranges, incorporating the stronger H1 performance. We are also raising the total and organic revenue growth outlooks for the big three to a range of 9.5% to 10% from the prior approximately 9.5%. Our other outlook metrics remain unchanged. We continue to see 2026 adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 40%, and we expect free cash flow of approximately $2.1 billion. Turning to the Q3, we expect organic revenue growth of approximately 8% and our adjusted EBITDA margin to be approximately 36%. Included in this outlook is an expectation for $19 million of severance expense related to our initiatives to Reimagine How We Work.
Speaker #2: Incorporating the stronger first half performance. We are also raising the total and organic revenue growth outlooks for the Big Three to a range of nine-and-a-half to 10% from the prior approximately nine-and-a-half percent.
Speaker #2: Our other outlook metrics remain unchanged. We continue to see 2026 adjusted EBITDA margins of approximately 40%, and we expect free cash flow of approximately $2.1 billion.
Speaker #2: Turning to the third quarter, we expect organic revenue growth of approximately 8% and our adjusted EBITDA margin to be approximately 36%. Included in this outlook is an expectation for $19 million of severance expense related to our initiatives to reimagine how we work.
Speaker #2: We are confident in the full-year margin outlook and see strong year-over-year margin expansion in the fourth quarter. Driven by the impact of severance actions and recent quarters, growing automation savings, moderating M&A dilution, and underlying leverage on our strong revenue growth.
Gary Bischoping: We are confident in the full-year margin outlook and see strong year-over-year margin expansion in the Q4, driven by the impact of severance actions in recent quarters, growing automation savings, moderating M&A dilution, and underlying leverage on our strong revenue growth. Savings from severance actions and automation efforts are expected to be approximately $40 million in the Q4. Now I'll turn it to Gary Bisbee for the Q&A.
Speaker #2: Savings from severance actions and automation efforts are expected to be approximately $40 million in the fourth quarter. Now I'll turn it to Gary Bisbee for the Q&A.
Speaker #3: Thank you. Jennifer, we're ready to begin the Q&A session.
Gary Bischoping: Thank you. Jennifer, we're ready to begin the Q&A session.
Speaker #1: Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal to reach our equipment.
Operator: Thank you. If you'd like to ask a question, please signal by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. If you are using a speakerphone, please make sure your mute function is turned off to allow your signal through to our equipment. Again, press star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We'll take our first question from Manav Patnaik with Barclays.
Speaker #1: Again, press star one to ask a question. We'll pause for just a moment to allow everyone an opportunity to signal for questions. We'll take our first question from Manav Patnik with Barclays.
Speaker #4: Thank ank you. Good morning. I was just wondering if you could give us a sense of how Coal Council was doing in terms of its growth rate and its size, and just curious if the build-out of Thomson is that going to be beneficial to Coal Council?
Manav Patnaik: Thank you. Good morning. I was just wondering if you could give us a sense of how CoCounsel was doing in terms of its growth rate and size. Just curious if the build-out of Thomson, is that going to be beneficial to CoCounsel? Like how interconnected are those two?
Speaker #4: How interconnected are those two?
Speaker #5: Yeah. Hi, Manav. Thanks for the question. So I'll start. Gary, you'll likely add. So a quarter or so ago, we reported that Coal Council had breached the million user mark.
Steve Hasker: Yeah. Hi, Manav. Thanks for the question. I'll start. Gary will likely add. A quarter or so ago, we reported that CoCounsel had breached a million-user mark. We see healthy growth beyond that. I think equally importantly, though, we see exciting growth in terms of its usage. It's one thing to get it in the hands of people. I think it's another to see daily usage tick up in really healthy ways, and that's across the legal and the tax and audit versions of CoCounsel. That's my first comment. The second comment is we put a completely rebuilt version, fully agentic version of CoCounsel legal into the market in beta form, and we're ramping that up as we go through here. We'll be talking a lot about it at the ILTACON conference in a couple of weeks. The feedback on that has been extremely strong.
Speaker #5: We see healthy growth beyond that. I think equally importantly, though, we see exciting growth in terms of its usage. It's one thing to get it in the hands of people.
Speaker #5: I think it's another to see daily usage tick up and really healthy ways. And that's across the legal and the tax and audit versions of Coal Council.
Speaker #5: So that's my first comment. The second comment is, we put a completely rebuilt, fully agentic version of CoCounsel Legal into the market in beta form, and we're ramping that up as we go through here.
Speaker #5: We'll be talking a lot about it at the ILTACON conference in a couple of weeks. And the feedback on that has been extremely strong.
Steve Hasker: I haven't seen feedback as strong in my career for a new product, specifically, the accuracy and the breadth of agentic capabilities. Maybe most significantly, the transparency. It is the opposite of a black box. For the fiduciary professions that we serve, particularly the legal profession, the idea that a young, mid-tenure senior lawyer can see the 12 or 20 or 30 steps that the agent's going through and see all the citations and references, and in a sense, access a product that is verifiable, auditable, and they're able to validate each and every step. I think that's a step forward for the profession, and that's one of the things that the customers are excited about. That's the first part of your question.
Speaker #5: I haven't seen feedback this strong in my career for a new product, and specifically regarding the accuracy and the breadth of agentic capabilities. And maybe most significantly, the transparency.
Speaker #5: It is the opposite of a black box. And for the fiduciary professions that we serve, particularly the legal profession, the idea that a young mid-tenure senior lawyer can see the 12 or 20 or 30 steps that the agent's going through and see all the citations and references and in a sense access a product that is verifiable, auditable, and they're able to validate each and every step, I think that's a step forward for the profession, and that's one of the things that the customers are excited about.
Speaker #5: So that's the first part of your question. The second part of the question, we're going to port, as I mentioned, tabular analysis which is an important bulk document analysis feature across onto the Thomson model later this month.
Steve Hasker: The second part of the question, we're going to port, as I mentioned, tabular analysis, which is an important bulk document analysis feature, across onto the Thomson model later this month. Over time, I would see us porting more and more capabilities as we develop the Thomson model and its capabilities are enhanced. That will give us, we think, the benefit of reduced latency, so greater speed, more scalability, and a cost advantage. All of those things we think will be compelling in the marketplace.
Speaker #5: And over time, I would see us porting more and more capabilities as we develop the Thomson model and its capabilities are enhanced. And that will give us, we think, the benefit of reduced latency.
Speaker #5: So greater speed. More scalability. And a cost and a cost advantage. And all of those things we think are will be compelling in the marketplace.
Speaker #6: Yeah. The only thing I would add is I think relative to Coal Council, the pipeline is building nicely here coming out of beta and heading into what we've seen in June and July.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah, the only thing I would add is I think, relative to the CoCounsel, the pipeline is building nicely here coming out of beta and heading into what we've seen in June and July. The team's out there selling all the benefits through, and we're seeing also good conversion early on in that pipeline. That's the only thing I would add.
Speaker #6: And so, the team's out there selling all the benefits through, and we're also seeing good conversion early on in that pipeline. So that's the only thing I would add.
Speaker #4: Got it. Thank you. Maybe I'll just ask in a slightly different way. I mean, the acceleration in the Legal organic growth has been impressive the last two quarters.
Manav Patnaik: Got it. Thank you. Maybe just ask a slightly different way. I mean, the acceleration in the legal organic growth has been impressive the last two quarters. Is there any way to disaggregate that growth, either by the market that we've described before, so even the content and research and then the workflows? Any way to disaggregate to help us appreciate the growth rates there?
Speaker #4: Is there any way to disaggregate that growth by the market that you described before, Steve—the content and research, and then the workflow? So, is there any way to disaggregate, to help us appreciate the growth rate there?
Speaker #5: So it's a great question, Manav. The answer today is no. We don't have that ready for you. And I think one of the reasons we don't is that these things are becoming increasingly intertwined.
Steve Hasker: It's a great question, Manav. The answer today is no, we don't have that ready for you. I think one of the reasons we don't is that these things are becoming increasingly intertwined. The most exciting thing for us about this agentic AI environment, for example, is it expands the role we play in a meaningful way. You take a product like Westlaw Advantage-
Speaker #5: So the most exciting thing for us about this agentic AI environment, for example, is that it expands the role we play. In a meaningful way.
Speaker #5: So you take a product like Westlaw Advantage and Coal Council. It gets us into the draft it gets us into the drafting business. It gets us into the brief building business.
Steve Hasker: CoCounsel. It gets us into the drafting business. It gets us into the brief-building business. It gets us into sort of advanced litigation analytics. We start to do more and more advanced lawyering tasks for the professionals that we serve using our content, using our expertise, using the access to the best AI tools. That sort of clear distinction between research and workflow software is meaningfully and I think purposefully blurred, and that's sort of what's driving the uptick in growth that you cite.
Speaker #5: It gets us into sort of advanced litigation analytics. And so we start to do more and more advanced lawyering tasks for the professionals that we serve.
Speaker #5: Using our content, using our expertise, and using access to the best AI tools. And so that sort of clear distinction between research and workflow software is meaningfully—and, I think, purposefully—blurred.
Speaker #5: And that's sort of what's driving the uptick in growth that you've cited.
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Manav Patnaik: Thank you.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Vince Valentini with TD Cowan.
Operator: We'll go next to Vince Valentini with TD Cowen.
Vince Valentini: Hey, thanks very much. Can I focus on the margins for a second? If you do 36% in Q3, obviously that's down from 37.7% last year. $19 million in severance would be just about 100 basis points of the impact, but there's still a seemingly year-over-year decline even after the severance. Is there anything else one-timing in nature, timing-ish in nature that you can point to? You mentioned earlier the largest ever brand campaign you've done for the next generation of CoCounsel, maybe there's some somewhat non-recurring costs there. Secondly, just keying off of that, if your full year guidance hasn't changed, you'd still be up around 100 basis points full year. Unless my math is wrong, you need to do just about 45% EBITDA margin in Q4.
Speaker #6: Hey. Thanks very much. I'm going to focus on the margins for a second. If you do 36% in the third quarter, obviously, that's down from 37.7 last year.
Speaker #6: 19 million in severance would be just about 100 basis points of the impact, but there's still a seemingly year-over-year decline, even after the severance.
Speaker #6: So, is there anything else one-time in nature, timing-ish in nature, that you can point to? You mentioned earlier the largest ever brand campaign you've done for the next—somewhat non-recurring costs there.
Speaker #6: And secondly, keying off of that, if you're fully your guidance hasn't changed, you can still be up around 100 basis points full year. Unless my math is wrong, you need to do just about 45% EBITDA margin in the fourth quarter I just want to make sure that's what you're telling us is possible given the automation savings from reimagining work plus other benefits of leverage from the good revenue growth you're doing.
Vince Valentini: I just want to make sure that's what you're telling us is possible given the automation savings from Reimagine How We Work plus other benefits of leverage from the good revenue growth you're doing. If you can clarify those margin things, it'd be very helpful. Thanks.
Speaker #6: So, if you can clarify those margin things, it'd be very helpful. Thanks. Yeah, you got it, Vince, and thanks for the question. I'll address your third quarter question first and then go to the full year.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah, you got it, Vince, thanks for the question. I'll address your Q3 question first then go to the full year. In Q3, it's really a continuation of factors we've described in H1. The severance that we mentioned here in Q3. We are continuing to make investments in addition to the increase in the marketing spend Steve mentioned to drive automation and innovation. We also have some modest dilution from an M&A perspective. It's the amalgamation of all those things that, like you rightly pointed out, is driving that guide in Q3. The thing that I would pivot to in terms of the full year, margins are progressing largely as we have planned. This has kind of been how we thought about the year as we've gone through it.
Speaker #6: So in the third quarter, it's really a continuation of factors we've described in the first half. The severance that we mentioned here in the third quarter.
Speaker #6: We are continuing to make investments in addition to the increase in the marketing spend Steve mentioned. To drive we also have some modest dilution from an M&A perspective.
Speaker #6: So it's the amalgamation of all those things that, like you rightly pointed out, is driving that guide in the third quarter. The thing that I would then pivot to in terms of the full year margins are progressing and largely as we have planned.
Speaker #6: And so, this has kind of been how we thought about the year as we've gone through it. We remain confident in delivering that full-year outlook.
Gary Bischoping: We remain confident in delivering that full-year outlook. Year to date, we've had a number of targeted investments as we focus on, like I said, innovation and automation. We have absorbed a lot of that acquisition dilution, there's been meaningful severance. Like I said, in Q3, we expect $19 million of severance. In Q4, to your question, maybe not quite as high as you just referenced, but kind of in the low 40s% EBITDA margin is what we have line of sight to. We expect to deliver $40 million of savings from our efforts to drive automation or Reimagine How We Work. We expect to have significantly lower year-on-year severance than last year. We had $19 million of severance in Q4 of 2025. You kind of put that all together, Vince.
Speaker #6: Year to date, we've had a number of targeted investments as we focus on, like I said, innovation and automation. We have absorbed a lot of that acquisition dilution.
Speaker #6: And there's been meaningful severance. Like I said, in the third quarter, we expect 19 million dollars of severance. In the fourth quarter, to your question, maybe not quite as high as you just referenced, but kind of in the low 40s EBITDA margin is what we have line of sight too.
Speaker #6: And we expect to deliver $40 million of savings from our efforts to drive automation or reimagine how we work. And we expect to have significantly lower year-on-year severance than last year. We had $19 million of severance in Q4 of 2025.
Speaker #6: So you kind of put that all together, Vince, what that says is that combining the underlying operating leverage from our healthy revenue growth and the factors I pointed out.
Gary Bischoping: What that says is that combining the underlying operating leverage from our healthy revenue growth and the factors I pointed out, that provides confidence we feel, and we do have line of sight to the strong year-over-year margin expansion applied for Q4 in our full-year outlook.
Speaker #6: That provides confidence, we feel, and we do have line of sight to the strong year-over-year margin expansion applied for the fourth quarter in our full-year outlook.
Speaker #6: Thank you. Thanks, Vince.
Vince Valentini: Thank you.
Gary Bischoping: Thanks, Vince.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Drew Nick Reynolds with RBC.
Operator: We'll go next to Drew McReynolds with RBC.
Speaker #7: Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning. First question on the increase in day three organic revenue growth for 2026. Obviously, great to see wondering if you could unpack the key driver, key drivers underneath.
Drew McReynolds: Yeah. Thanks very much. Good morning. First question on the increase in Day 3 organic revenue growth for 2026. Obviously, great to see. Wondering if you could unpack the key drivers underneath. You are clearly seeing strong transaction revenues on a year-over-year basis. Is there a segment that is driving it? Is it transaction revenue? Steve, in your prepared remarks, you talked about repeat transaction revenue. Can you just explain that to forth? Second question, just to follow up on the Thomson LLM. With it trained on less than 10% of your content, is its capability presumably going to grow with the function of training it on more of the content? What is the gating factor for just today’s training it on less than 10%? Thank you.
Speaker #7: You're clearly seeing strong transaction revenues on a year-over-year basis, and I'm just wondering, is there a segment that's driving it? Is it transaction revenue? And then, Steve, in your prepared remarks, you talked about repeat transaction revenue.
Speaker #7: Can you just explain that for us? And then second question, just a follow-up on the Thompson LLM with the trained on less than 10% of your content.
Speaker #7: Is its capability presumably going to grow with the function of training it on more of the content? And what's the gating factor for just to date training it on less than 10%?
Speaker #7: Thank you.
Speaker #6: Yeah, thanks. I'll hand it to the growth drivers here quickly. Yeah, I mean, the Corporate segment had a standout transactional revenue growth quarter, and that was ahead of our expectations.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah, thanks. I will handle the growth drivers here quick. Yeah, the corporate segment had a standout transactional revenue growth quarter, and that was ahead of our expectations. They had a bit of an easy compare embedded in that. Pagero and the global expansion really has accelerated that business. Global trade, indirect tax, we are seeing strong traction there. We continue to add agentic capabilities to those platforms, which is driving kind of a new conversation for the field to have, and therefore delivering strong growth. Look, our legal professional business, the size and scope of that, for it to grow and accelerate its growth rate, that is a lot of dollars of growth as well, in addition to growing and accelerating from seven, eight, nine to 10, 11. I just want to make sure we all understand that we are driving that kind of growth at scale.
Speaker #6: They had a bit of an easy compare embedded in that. But Pegaro in the global expansion really has accelerated that business. Global trade indirect tax, we're seeing strong traction there.
Speaker #6: We continue to add agentic capabilities to those platforms, which is driving kind of a new conversation for the field to have. And therefore delivering strong growth.
Speaker #6: Look, our legal professional business, the size and scope of that for it to grow and accelerate its growth rate, that's a lot of dollars of growth as well in addition to growing and accelerating kind of from 7, 8, 9 to 10, 11.
Speaker #6: And so I just want to make sure we all understand that scale. Across that and its Westlaw and it continues to be Coal Council as we continue to drive that forward.
Gary Bischoping: Across that in its Westlaw, it continues to be CoCounsel as we continue to drive that forward. Those are kind of some of the growth drivers that we saw delivering that growth rate here in Q2. Steve, did you want to talk about the other part of the question?
Speaker #6: So those are kind of some of the growth drivers that we saw delivering that growth rate here in the second quarter. Steve, did you want to talk about the other part of the question?
Speaker #7: Yeah. Well, just the repeat the two parts. Repeat transactional revenue through, that was really that's just a reference to the improving quality of our book of business as we divest 51% of print.
Steve Hasker: Well, just to repeat the two parts. To repeat transactional revenue, Drew, that was really This is a reference to the improving quality of our book of business as we divest 51% of Print. As you know, we are very focused on the long-term customer relationships and driving our NPS up and translating that into multi-year agreements. That forward visibility we think is important, in terms of the way we manage the business and the way in which investors view us. That was really just a reference to that shift. In terms of the Thomson model, look, there is no particular constraint that led us to use less than 10% of the legal content other than the architecture of the model wanted to create something that is rock solid in terms of its foundation.
Speaker #7: As you know, we're very focused on the long-term customer relationships and driving our NPS up. And translating that into multi-year agreements. And that forward visibility, we think, is important in terms of the way we manage the business and the way in which investors and viewers because that was really just a reference to that model, there's no particular constraint that led us to use less than 10% of the legal content other than the architecture of the model wanted to create something that is rock solid in terms of its foundation.
Speaker #7: And as I said, ended up creating something which has produced extraordinarily strong general domain results. And I think that was sort of the order of business in terms of creating the model.
Steve Hasker: As I said, ended up creating something which has produced extraordinarily strong general domain results. I think that was sort of the order of business in terms of creating the model. There's no particular constraint in here that we're trying to navigate. What we will now do is continue to invest in that and start to open the spigot in terms of that legal content. We expect the legal specific results to improve as we apply more and more content and expertise to it. We'll keep you apprised as to sort of what that looks like as the quarters roll through here. Let me make a couple of comments about why we're calling out the Thomson model and why we think there's reason for real sort of optimism and we're encouraged by what the team has been able to achieve.
Speaker #7: So there's no particular constraint in here that we're trying to navigate. What we will now do is continue to invest in that and start to open the spigot in terms of that legal content.
Speaker #7: We expect the legal specific results to improve as we apply more and more content and expertise to it. And we'll keep you apprised as to sort of what that looks like as the quarters roll through here.
Speaker #7: Let me make a couple of comments about why we're calling out the Thomson model, and why we think there's a reason for real optimism. We're encouraged by what the team has been able to achieve.
Steve Hasker: The first thing, Drew, is I think it speaks to innovation at Thomson Reuters. If you look at the last couple of years, we've been able to put a fully agentic deep research version of Westlaw into the marketplace, which has been, by far and away, the leading legal research product in this deep research environment. We've reinvented CoCounsel Legal, and as I said in response to Manav's questions, we're very encouraged by the early feedback there. CoCounsel Audit and Taxes is performing well. We've started to add agentic capabilities to our ONESOURCE and to our transaction compliance portfolio. Then, for us to create a large language model that performs at the level it does in its first version, I think speaks to us owning our future. I think it gives us a level of sort of leverage with suppliers that's healthy.
Speaker #7: The first thing, Drew, is I think it speaks to innovation at Thomson Reuters. So, if you look at the last couple of years, we've been able to put a fully agentic, deep research version of Westlaw into the marketplace.
Speaker #7: Which has been by far and away the leading legal research product in this deep research environment. We've reinvented Coal Council legal. And as I said in response to Manav's questions, we're very encouraged by the early feedback there.
Speaker #7: Coal Council audit and taxes is performing well. We've started to add agentic capabilities to our ONESOURCE and to our transaction compliance portfolio. And then for us to create a large language model that performs at the level it does in its first version.
Speaker #7: I think speaks to us owning our future. I think it gives us a level of sort of leverage with suppliers that's healthy. And importantly, as we've taken this out in the very early going to customers, our most sophisticated customers are increasingly seeking advanced AI models operating within their own environments.
Steve Hasker: Importantly, as we've taken this out in the very early going to customers, our most sophisticated customers are increasingly seeking advanced AI models operating within their own environments where they retain control over their IP and their data. This is incredibly important when we service, we do fiduciaries, right? Their preference for what I would call sovereign AI is strongest where they have the concerns over compliance and those concerns are particularly acute and the sort of consequences of IP bleeding out from their environment are particularly acute. I think, there's an opportunity here for us to meet and exceed that demand for sovereign AI within the legal community, within the tax accounting and audit communities using Thomson. Then lastly, I referred to this in response to Manav's question, but I'll just reiterate it.
Speaker #7: Where they retain control over their IP and their data. And this is incredibly important when service we do fiduciaries, right? Their preference for what I would call sovereign AI is strongest where they have the concerns over compliance.
Speaker #7: And those concerns are particularly acute. And the sort of consequences of IP bleeding out from their environment are particularly acute. So I think there's an opportunity here for us to meet and exceed that demand for sovereign AI within the legal community, within the tax accounting and audit communities using Thompson.
Speaker #7: And then lastly, refer to this as in response to Manav's question, but I'll just reiterate it. It does provide us some really compelling optionality as it pertains to Coal Council.
Steve Hasker: It does provide us some really compelling optionality as it pertains to CoCounsel. We'll start with tabular analysis. We'll run that in August, then based on our evaluation of that, we'll then, I think, port more capabilities across within the CoCounsel suite to Thomson, and that'll give us reduced latency, a significant cost advantage, and this ability to provide sovereign AI solutions that will meet the needs of our most sophisticated customers. Look, what I've said to the teams here is I think they've done something amazing, but we're just getting started.
Speaker #7: And we'll start with Tabular Analysis. We'll run that in August. Then, based on our evaluation of that, I think we'll port more capabilities across within the Coal Council suite to Thomson.
Speaker #7: And that'll give us reduced latency a significant cost advantage. And this ability to provide sovereign AI solutions that will meet the needs of our most sophisticated customers.
Speaker #7: So look, what I've said to the teams here is I think they've done something amazing. But we're just getting started.
Speaker #6: Drew, the only thing I would add to that, just to your reoccurring transactional revenue, I would call it reoccurring, if you will. And some of our tax products, a few of our tax products, well, we call it transactional.
Gary Bischoping: Drew, the only thing I would add to that, just to your reoccurring transactional revenue, I would call it reoccurring, if you will, in some of our tax products, a few of our tax products. Well, we call it transactional. It's a repeat kind of year in and year out and kind of what goes up and down is a little bit of the volume elements of that. That's what I would call reoccurring, and again, we have good visibility to that here as we get closer to when that demand shows up.
Speaker #6: It's a repeat kind of year in and year out. And kind of what goes up and down is a little bit of the volume elements of that.
Speaker #6: And so that's what I would call a reoccurring. And again, we have good visibility to that here as we get closer to when that demand shows up.
Speaker #1: Okay. Thank you both.
Drew McReynolds: Okay. Thank you both.
Speaker #7: Sure. Thanks, Drew.
Steve Hasker: Sure. Thanks, Drew.
Speaker #2: We'll go next to Andrew Steinerman with JP Morgan.
Operator: We'll go next to Andrew Steinerman with JPMorgan.
Speaker #8: Hi, there. This is Rohan Caldera on for Andrew Steinerman. Thanks for the question. I just wanted to touch maybe on LLM costs and maybe how you guys are thinking about this going into the back half and also maybe seeing if there's any interest in shifting to a consumption or subscription and old-ridge model for any of the AI offerings.
Rohan Kalra: Hi there. This is Rohan Kalra on for Andrew Steinerman. Thanks for the question. I just wanted to touch maybe on LLM costs, maybe how you guys are thinking about this going into the back half. Also maybe seeing if there's any interest in shifting to a consumption or subscription and overage model for any of the AI offerings. Thank you.
Speaker #8: Thank you.
Speaker #7: Yeah. Thanks, Rohan. Great question. So a couple of thoughts, and I'm sure Gary will build here. So the first thing is we've built our agentic solutions to be optimally efficient.
Steve Hasker: Yeah. Thanks, Rohan. Great question. A couple thoughts, and I'm sure Gary will build here. The first thing is, we built our agentic solutions to be optimally efficient. Kudos to Kirsty and Joel and everybody involved here, because we do see more efficient usage of tokens than some of the other sort of competitors and thin market products. That's one thing. The second thing is, as I just referred to, the Thomson model gives us a lot of optionality here, right? If we can reach anywhere near capacity of our GPUs, our compute around that model, we're going to have a meaningful cost advantage, which means we can keep our pricing and our sort of propositions very, very simple, clean and clear to our customers.
Speaker #7: And kudos to Kirsty and Joel and everybody involved here. Because we do see more efficient usage of tokens than some of the other sort of competitors and in-market products.
Speaker #7: So that's one thing. The second thing is, as I just referred to, the Thompson model gives us a lot of optionality here. And if we can reach anywhere near capacity of our GPUs, our compute around that model, we're going to have a meaningful cost advantage, which means we can keep our pricing and our sort of propositions very, very simple.
Speaker #7: Clean and clear. To our customers. Having said that, I think like many others, we are considering a consumption-based component to pricing some of our options in the future.
Steve Hasker: Having said that, I think like many others, we are considering a consumption-based component to pricing some of our options in the future. Certainly customers are open to that. We're making a series of infrastructure investments to support this as soon as the new year. Gary, what would you add?
Speaker #7: And certainly customers are open to that. And we're making a series of infrastructure investments to support this as soon as the new year. Gary, what would you add?
Speaker #6: Yeah. I mean, I think the other point I would make here is that our AI solutions are typically sold as a premium tier that includes the agentic capabilities.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah, I think the other point I would make here is that our AI solutions are typically sold as a premium tier that includes the agentic capabilities. The pricing for that key AI offering, like in Westlaw Advantage, is comfortably covering the growth in the LLM costs and the customer usage here we're seeing in 2026. That pricing structure that we have today really also is aimed at supporting the cost of growing customer usage over time. I feel good about the current mechanisms, like Steve said, that are simple for customers to understand, but also providing the right economic outcomes as we move forward.
Speaker #6: And the pricing for that key AI offering, like in Westlaw, advantage is comfortably covering the growth in the LLM costs. And the customer usage here, we're seeing in 2026.
Speaker #6: And that pricing structure that we have today really also is aimed at supporting the cost of growing customer usage over time. So I feel good about the current mechanisms like Steve said that are simple for customers to understand, but also providing the right economic outcomes as we move forward.
Speaker #1: Got it. Thank you.
Rohan Kalra: Got it. Thank you.
Speaker #2: We'll go next to our Amanda Galapataky with Canaccord Genuity.
Operator: We'll go next to Aravinda Galappatthige with Canaccord Genuity.
Aravinda Galappatthige: Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'll start with a quick follow-up on CoCounsel. Steve, I think you've said in the past that you've observed that, with many of your law firm clients, that the level of experimentation and trying out new products remains high. I know that you speak to some very good feedback on CoCounsel, including sort of the recent beta version. Vis-a-vis the competitors, the startups, any kind of head-to-head feedback that you can share? I'm not sure how easy that is to extract, but I was keen to maybe hear your thoughts on that. In terms of sort of my main question, with the buyback programs completed, maybe just how you're thinking of capital allocation. I know the stock's recovered a bit off the bottom, but obviously I think in the minds of many remains attractively priced.
Speaker #9: Good morning. Thanks for taking my question. I'll start with a quick follow-up on Coal Council. Steve, I think you've said in the past that you've observed that with many of your law firm clients that the level of experimentation and trying out new products remains high.
Speaker #9: I know that you speak to some very good feedback on Coal Council and including sort of the recent beta version. But vis-à-vis the competitors, the startups, any kind of head-to-head feedback that you can share?
Speaker #9: I'm not sure how easy that is to extract, but I was keen to maybe hear your thoughts on that. And then in terms of sort of my main question, with the buyback programs completed, maybe just how you're thinking of capital allocation?
Speaker #9: I know the stock's recovered a bit off the bottom, but obviously, I think the minds of many remains attractively priced. I wanted to hear your thoughts on that as well.
Aravinda Galappatthige: I wanted to hear your thoughts on that as well. Thank you.
Speaker #9: Thank you.
Speaker #7: Yeah. Thanks, Arvind. So I'll defer the buyback question to Gary, but let me address the Coal Council legal question. So I think you've captured the environment correctly up until now, which is law firms, small, medium, large, and to some extent general councils, offices, have been experimenting with multiple tools.
Steve Hasker: Thanks, Aravinda. I'll defer the buyback question to Gary, but let me address the CoCounsel legal question. I think as you've captured the environment correctly up until now, which is law firms, small, medium, large, and to some extent general counsels offices have been experimenting with multiple tools and have signed up for trials or one-year agreements. It remains a pretty fluid market. It was with that as the backdrop that we completely rebuilt CoCounsel. We've done that under the leadership of Emily Colbert and Rawia Ashraf, who I think have done a wonderful job with the head engineer, Viola, in redoing it. It's given us enough confidence to launch The CoCo campaign and spend some real money in terms of getting the merit to that product into the hearts and minds of our customers.
Speaker #7: And have signed up for trials or one-year agreements and so it remains a pretty fluid market. And it was with that as the backdrop that we completely rebuilt Coal Council.
Speaker #7: And we've done that under the leadership of Emily Colbert and Rabia Ashraf, who I think have done a wonderful job, with the head engineer, Viola, in redoing it.
Speaker #7: And it's given us enough confidence to launch the Coco campaign and spend some real money in terms of getting the merits of that product into the hearts and minds of our customers.
Speaker #7: It is the first time that we have used the depth and breadth of our content and expertise. So Westlaw practical law 26, 2700 attorney editors and practice experts to train that product.
Steve Hasker: It is the first time that we have used the depth and breadth of our content and expertise, Westlaw, Practical Law, 2,600, 2,700 attorney editors and practice experts to train that product. It's the first fully agentic version. The early feedback we're getting as customers compare it to other offerings in the marketplace is that it is highly differentiated because of its access, its native access to our content and our expertise. It's fairly going in terms of launch.
Speaker #7: And it's the first fully agentic version. And so the early feedback we're getting as customers compare it to other offerings in the marketplace is that it is highly differentiated because of its access, its native access to our content and our expertise.
Speaker #7: So it's barely going in terms of launch. It's only literally a number of weeks that it's been in the marketplace. But the customers that have poured it across from the prior version of Coal Council and the new customers to this offering are showing very, very strong usage growth, which for me is the most important thing that I look for.
Steve Hasker: It's only literally a number of weeks that it's been in the marketplace, but the customers that have ported across from the prior version of CoCounsel and the new customers to this offering are showing very, very strong usage growth, which for me is the most important thing that I look for in terms of are people coming back all day long and using the product and getting value from it? That looks really encouraging. How it plays out from a competitive landscape, I think remains to be seen, but we're very optimistic about this new offering. We're going to keep investing behind it with bulk document review capabilities, with collaboration tools, increasingly linking it to our other propositions. Bear in mind, one last comment. This is white space for us. This whole sort of legal AI assistant is a white space growth opportunity for us.
Speaker #7: In terms of are people coming back all day long and using the product and getting value from it? And that looks really encouraging. So how it plays out from a competitive landscape I think remains to be seen.
Speaker #7: But we're very optimistic about this new offer and we're going to keep investing behind it with both document review capabilities, with collaboration tools, increasingly linking it to our other propositions.
Speaker #7: And bear in mind one last comment. This is white space for us. So, this whole sort of legal AI assistant is a white space growth opportunity for us.
Speaker #7: And we're confident we'll capture more than our fair share as we go through the next 12, 24, 36 months. But it is new spend and a new growth opportunity over and above the existing components of our legal business.
Steve Hasker: We're confident we'll capture more than our fair share as we go through the next 12, 24, 36 months. It is new spend and a new growth opportunity over and above the existing components of our legal business. Gary, what else would you add on CoCounsel and buybacks?
Speaker #7: Gary, what else would you add on Coal Council and buybacks?
Speaker #6: Yeah. On Coal Council, I would just emphasize Steve's point around usage with just a click down. And so we're seeing the number of interactions go up, but also the duration and persistence of those interactions sustained.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah. On CoCounsel, I would just emphasize Steve's point around usage with just a click down. We're seeing the number of interactions go up, also the duration and persistence of those interactions sustained. They're in it more often, and they're using it for longer and kind of getting to end of job, if you will. It's demonstrating a real impact, I think, by those usage patterns. Encouraging for sure. In terms of your question around kind of capital allocation, I'll just go up periscope in a minute and then directly answer your question. I definitely support a balanced capital allocation approach that TR has followed in recent years. Our objective, as Steve outlined, is to drive innovation, really to beat our competitors, delight our customers, while maintaining a key focus on shareholder value creation.
Speaker #6: And so they're in it more often, and they're using it for longer, and kind of getting to end of job, if you will. And so it's demonstrating a real impact, I think, by those usage patterns.
Speaker #6: So encouraging for sure. In terms of your question around kind of capital allocation, I'll just kind of go up parascope in a minute and then directly ask your question.
Speaker #6: So I definitely support a balanced capital allocation approach that TR has followed in recent years. Our objective as Steve outlined is to drive innovation, really to beat our competitors, to light our customers while maintaining a key focus on shareholder value creation.
Gary Bischoping: Against that objective, our first priority for capital allocation remains investing in our business, in innovation, both internally and through strategic M&A. We remain committed to growing the dividend over time, and we'll consider capital returns through share purchases and other return of capital to shareholders. That's the broad philosophy. Directly related to the rest of the year, we don't have an approved program in place right now. We just completed that program. We'll continue to evaluate that relative to that prior kind of stated set of priorities and determine if it would be prudent to get back in for a share purchase or not, but no plans at the moment.
Speaker #6: Against that objective, our first priority for capital allocation is remains investing in our business in innovation, both internally and through strategic M&A. We remain committed to growing the dividend over time.
Speaker #6: And we'll consider a kind of capital returns through shared purchases as another return of capital to shareholders. And so that's the broad philosophy. And directly related to the rest of the year, but we don't have an approved program in place right now.
Speaker #6: We just completed that program. We'll continue to evaluate that relative to that prior kind of stated set of priorities and determine if it would be prudent to get back in for a shared purchase or not.
Speaker #6: But no plans at the moment.
Speaker #9: Thank you.
Aravinda Galappatthige: Thank you.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Tim Casey of BMO.
Operator: We'll go next to Tim Casey of BMO.
Tim Casey: Thanks, and morning. Steve, could you outline how we should think about the Thomson LLM model in terms of discrete product offerings? Is this going to be a product that is marketed in itself, or will it power and complement existing platforms? There has been a lot of, or some stories of major law firms deciding to go it alone and protect their IP and content. Is the Thomson LLM something that could help them do that? If you could help us think about how we should place Thomson LLM in your product set.
Speaker #10: Thanks. Good morning. Steve, could you outline how we should think about the Thomson LLL model in terms of discrete product offerings? Is this going to be a product that is marketed in itself, or will it power and complement And there has been a lot of or some stories in the of major law firms deciding to go it alone.
Speaker #10: And protect their IP and content. Is the Thomson LLM something that could help them do that? I'm just trying to see if you could help us think about how we should place Thomson LLM in your product set.
Speaker #7: Yeah. Thanks, Tim. So we're working through that now. The first production version eval results came out 10 days ago. And we've been hard at work to sort of look at what's the best way for us to take advantage of that which we've created and built.
Steve Hasker: Yeah. Thanks, Tim. We're working through that now. The first production version eval results came out 10 days ago, and we've been hard at work to sort of look at what's the best way for us to take advantage of that which we've created and built. I think it provides at least two paths. One is, as you say, major law firms who want to create a sovereign AI environment and run a version of the model, commingle their own information within their own environment, and potentially run CoCounsel on the top of that. That is one path, and we're in conversation with a number of firms now around what that might look like and what the sort of primary use cases will be and how we would implement that.
Speaker #7: And I think it provides at least two paths. So one is, as you say, major law firms who want to create and a sovereign AI environment.
Speaker #7: And run a version of the model co-mingle their own information within their own environment and potentially run Coal Council on the top of that.
Speaker #7: So that's one path. And we're in conversation with a number of firms now around what that might look like and what the sort of primary use cases will be and how we would implement that.
Speaker #7: The second that I've referred to a couple of times is to build upon tabular analysis running on Thomson. And add more and more of the Coal Council capabilities.
Steve Hasker: The second that I've referred to a couple of times is to build upon tabular analysis running on Thomson and add more and more of the CoCounsel capabilities. As I said, I think that gives us a sort of a degree of ownership over our future and sort of independence and autonomy, as well as speed and cost advantages. We'll be thoughtful about that because CoCounsel is working well, we don't want to be overly disruptive. It's pretty exciting as to the options that it puts in front of us.
Speaker #7: And as I said, I think that gives us a sort of a degree of ownership over our future. And sort of independence and autonomy as well as speed and cost advantages.
Speaker #7: And so we'll be thoughtful about that because Coal Council is working well. And so we don't want to be overly disruptive. But it's pretty exciting as to the options that it puts in front of us.
Tim Casey: Notionally, when do you think you'll be in a position to monetize Thomson LLM on a discrete basis?
Speaker #10: But notionally, when do you think you'll be in a position to monetize Thomson LLM on a discrete basis?
Steve Hasker: We're certainly, as I said, exploring the opportunities now. I think we'll have more to tell you in the next couple of earnings calls about where it's going. I'm hopeful we've got a sort of an announcement or two to make between now and then, but we'll be thoughtful, and we'll be sort of trying to optimize its value for the long term versus any particular quarter.
Speaker #6: I think we'll I
Speaker #7: I mean, we're certainly, as I said, exploring the opportunities now. I think we'll have more to tell you in the next couple of earnings calls about where it's going.
Speaker #7: And I'm hopeful we've got sort of an announcement or two to make between now and then. But we'll be thoughtful and we'll be sort of trying to optimize its value for the long term versus any particular quarter.
Speaker #10: Thank you.
Tim Casey: Thank you.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Kevin McDay. Of UBS.
Operator: We'll go next to Kevin.
Steve Hasker: Thanks, Tim.
Operator: McVeigh of UBS.
Speaker #2: Great. Thanks so much. And congratulations. Hey, I guess on the print business, can you just remind us what the after-tax proceeds are going to be from that?
Kevin McVeigh: Great, thanks so much. Congratulations. Hey, I guess on the print business, can you just remind us what the after-tax proceeds are going to be from that? If you were to really size the buyback, like size it, how big can you go?
Speaker #2: And then if you were to really size the buyback, like size it, how big can you go?
Speaker #6: Yeah. Thanks for the question. So right now, you'll hear more about kind of the net proceeds as we continue through the overall kind of updating from a regulatory requirement and what we'll file on that.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah, thanks for the question. Right now, you'll hear more about the net proceeds as we continue through the overall kind of updating from a regulatory requirement and what we'll file on that. For now, we're just going to leave it at kind of gross proceeds of $500 million. As it relates to the size we could go to, it's an interesting question. I would just go back to, again, the overall philosophy here, Kevin, is we've got tremendous kind of growth options internally and externally to fund. We're excited about those. We'll be prudent as we deploy that capital get the expected returns that we would want out of that. That's point one. Point two, the dividend's an important aspect of what we do. We want to continue to sustain and grow that.
Speaker #6: For now, we're just going to leave it at kind of gross proceeds of $500 million. And as it relates to the size we could go to, I mean, it's an interesting question.
Speaker #6: But I would just go back to, again, the overall philosophy here, Kevin, is we've got tremendous kind of growth options internally and externally to fund.
Speaker #6: And we're excited about those. We'll be prudent as we deploy that capital. And get the expected returns that we would want out of that.
Speaker #6: That's point one. Point two, the dividend is important. Aspect of what we do. And we want to continue to sustain and grow that. And in this environment, we just need to make sure that we have the capacity to take advantage of those growth options that I talked about.
Gary Bischoping: In this environment, we just need to make sure that we have the capacity to take advantage of those growth options that I talked about. How big could you go? Everybody can kind of do the math. Alex, I'll leave that up to you. That capital allocation approach is important that we understand identify clear the market on those organic and inorganic options, consider other returns of capital.
Speaker #6: So how could how big could you go? I mean, everybody can kind of do the math. And so I'll let I'll leave that up to you.
Speaker #6: But that capital allocation approach is important that we understand and identify and clear the market on those organic and inorganic options and then consider other returns of capital.
Speaker #2: Great. And then, Steve, it sounded like the commentary on the organic growth didn't sound like a ceiling to me in terms of that 10%.
Kevin McVeigh: Great. Steve, it sounded like the commentary on the organic growth, it didn't sound like a ceiling to me in terms of that 10%. Is there any way to think about where you think that can go and what the drivers are that? Maybe just a range as whether it's kind of CoCounsel legal or kind of Thomson start to scale. How does that contribute to the growth?
Speaker #2: Is there any way to think about where you think that can go? And what the drivers are that? Maybe just a range as whether it's kind of Coal Council legal or kind of Thomson start to scale.
Speaker #2: How does that contribute to the growth?
Speaker #7: Yeah. Okay. I mean, I'll sort of let you in on the way. I think about this. And that is just driving it just incrementally driving it up.
Steve Hasker: Yeah. Okay. I'll sort of let you in on the way I think about this, that is just incrementally driving it up. I don't think there's a ceiling. The reason I don't think there's a ceiling is that we're serving fiduciary professions that are retooling. That are at the start of retooling their businesses to take advantage of automation and AI. We're one of the players that have the sort of assembly of assets to take advantage of that and to provide those tools. Our focus is to sort of up our rate of innovation. As I said, in answer to an earlier question, we're happy with the last sort of 12, 24 months and the success rate that we're delivering and the results on our growth to date. We're just hell-bent on increasing that rate of innovation and translating that into higher organic growth.
Speaker #7: I don't think there's a ceiling. And the reason I don't think there's a ceiling is that we're serving fiduciary professions. That are retooling. That at the start of retooling their businesses, to take advantage of automation and AI.
Speaker #7: And we're one of the players that have the sort of assembly of assets to take advantage of that and to provide those tools. So our focus is to sort of up our rate of innovation.
Speaker #7: And as I said, in answer to an earlier question, we're happy with the last sort of 12, 24 months. And the success rate that we're delivering.
Speaker #7: And the results on our growth to date. We're just hell bent on increasing that rate of innovation and translating that into higher organic growth.
Speaker #7: So bit by bit, year by year, we just want to drive it up and make sure that it's flows through in terms of healthy leverage.
Steve Hasker: Bit by bit, year by year, we just want to drive it up and make sure that it flows through in terms of healthy leverage, and we're able to reinvest some of that back in the opportunities that Gary just described that are ahead of us. I won't quantify it because I think it would be inappropriate to do so. That's really where the focus is, I think everything we see from our customers suggests that opportunity is real, and it will play out over the next few years.
Speaker #7: And we're able to reinvest some of that back in the opportunities that Gary just described that are ahead of us. So I won't quantify it because I think it would be inappropriate to do so.
Speaker #7: But that's really where the focus is. And I think everything we see from our customers suggests that that's opportunity that opportunity is real and it will play out over the next few years.
Kevin McVeigh: Super. Thank you for the comments.
Speaker #2: Super. Thank you for the comments.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Stephanie Price with CIBC.
Operator: We'll go next to Stephanie Price with CIBC.
Speaker #8: Hi. Good morning. I want to follow up on Gary's comments about AI pricing. So with 32% of ACV now generating AI enabled, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the revenue uplift you're seeing from Coal Council and the Gen AI solutions, how you kind of structure the AI pricing here, and how you think about that evolving over time.
Stephanie Price: Hi. Good morning. I wanted to follow up on Gary's comments about AI pricing. With 32% of ACV now Gen AI enabled, I wonder if you could talk a little bit about the revenue uplift you're seeing from CoCounsel and the Gen AI solutions, how you kind of structure the AI pricing here, and how you think about that evolving over time.
Speaker #6: Yeah. No. Thanks for the question. It's a great point. And I've seen several of these technology transitions over the years. And you can think about an analog run the cloud kind of transition and migration and uplifts from that.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah. No, thanks for the question. It's a great point. I've seen several of these technology transitions over the years, you can think about an analog around the cloud kind of transition to migration and uplifts from that. As I stated, I think I would start with the fact that the agentic offering is a premium tier pricing kind of mechanism for us. The innovation is accelerating. In that pricing mechanism, we want to make sure that the contracts are appropriately capturing the accelerating pace of innovation and therefore benefits to our customers from getting that innovation path as we move forward. If you think about kind of a multi-year contract, right? We'll enter and then see the progression in price that would be commensurate with the progression in innovation and benefits that you'll see in the customers and what they're realizing.
Speaker #6: And so as I stated, I think I would start with the fact that the agentic offering is a premium tier pricing kind of mechanism for us.
Speaker #6: The innovation the accelerating in that pricing mechanism, we want to make sure that the contracts are appropriately capturing the accelerating pace of innovation. And therefore, benefits to our customers.
Speaker #6: From getting that innovation path as we move forward. So if you think about kind of a multi-year contract, right? We'll enter and then see the progression in price that we would be commensurate with the progression and innovation and benefits that you'll see in the customers and what the realizing the interesting, I think, development from a migration and uplift perspective is, like Steve mentioned, we're increasingly performing more and more complex kind of lawyer tasks with those solutions.
Gary Bischoping: The interesting, I think, development from a migration and uplift perspective is, like Steve mentioned, we're increasingly performing more and more complex kind of lawyer tasks with those solutions, that solving those complex lawyer tasks is commensurate with a higher degree of value. Therefore, how do we continue to think about the appropriate value between exchange between customers and our offerings. That's a large part of what we're digging through and working our way through. I think right conversations with customers regarding consumption. I'm not going to give you a specific kind of migration uplift that we're seeing today. It is more than sufficient relative to the cost of consumption and the underlying cost base that we're seeing. We think that it's a good balance between kind of growth and profitability over time.
Speaker #6: And that solving those complex lawyer tasks is commensurate with a higher degree of value. And therefore, how do we continue to think about the appropriate value exchange between customers and our offerings?
Speaker #6: And so that's a large part of what we're digging through and working our way through. I think the right conversations with customers regarding consumption but I'm not going to give you a specific kind of migration uplift that we're seeing today.
Speaker #6: But it is more than sufficient relative to the cost of consumption and the underlying cost base that we're seeing. And we think that it's a good balance between kind of growth and profitability over time.
Speaker #8: Thank you very much.
Stephanie Price: Thank you very much.
Speaker #7: Thanks, Stephanie.
Steve Hasker: Thanks, Stephanie.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to George Tong with Goldman Sachs.
Operator: We will go next to George Tong with Goldman Sachs.
Speaker #9: Hi. Thanks. Good morning. Legal organic revenue growth accelerated to 10% in legal ex-government remained at 11%. You highlighted Westlaw and Coal Council as key contributors.
George Tong: Hi. Thanks. Good morning. Legal organic revenue growth accelerated to 10% and legal ex government remained at 11%. You highlighted Westlaw and CoCounsel as key contributors. As AI adoption increases, are you seeing that spend come primarily from new budget creation or from customers reallocating existing legal technology spend? In other words, to what extent is AI expanding wallet share versus just shifting spend within the legal ecosystem?
Speaker #9: As AI adopts and increases, are you seeing that spend come primarily from new budget creation or from customers reallocating existing legal technology spend? In other words, to what extent is AI expanding wallets here versus just shifting spend within the legal ecosystem?
Steve Hasker: Thanks, George. That's a great question. I think if you run a survey of law firms, small, medium, large, the vast majority are spending more on technology this year than they did last, and the vast majority plan to further expand that going forward. It reflects, I think, a couple of things. I think it reflects a sense of optimism about what automation and AI can do for their practice areas. It reflects, I think, a competitive need to do so, whether that's coming from pressure from their biggest customers or pressure from their most talented prospective recruits. Essentially, the transition that they're on is to spend less on real estate, potentially less on headcount per dollar of revenue, although that remains, I think, very much up for debate. Unequivocally, more on technology.
Speaker #7: Yeah. Thanks, George. That's a great question. So I think if you run a survey of law firms, small, medium, large, the vast majority are spending more on technology this year than they did last.
Speaker #7: And the vast majority plan to further expand that going forward. And it reflects, I think, a couple of things. I think it reflects a sense of optimism about what automation and AI can do for their practice areas.
Speaker #7: It reflects, I think, a competitive need to do so whether that's coming from pressure from their biggest customers or pressure from their most talented prospective recruits.
Speaker #7: But essentially, the transition that they're on is to spend less on real estate, potentially less on headcount per dollar of revenue. Although that remains, I think, very much up for debate.
Speaker #7: But unequivocally, more on technology. And essentially, some of the announcements you've seen in recent months are some of the world's biggest legal partnerships saying we're going to take some portion of partner profits and invest them in our tech spend over a period of time.
Steve Hasker: Essentially, some of the announcements you've seen in recent months are some of the world's biggest legal partnerships saying, We're going to take a portion of partner profits and invest them in our tech spend over a period of time. That's, I think, one manifestation of that new spend that we're seeing.
Speaker #7: And that's, I think, one manifestation of that new spend that we're seeing.
Speaker #9: Very helpful. And then following up on that, you highlighted very strong Coal Council usage growth, engagement, customer feedback. What metrics do you watch most closely to determine whether that engagement is translating into sustainable revenue growth and market share gains?
George Tong: Very helpful. Following up on that, you highlighted very strong CoCounsel usage growth, engagement, customer feedback. What metrics do you watch most closely to determine whether that engagement is translating into sustainable revenue growth and market share gains?
Speaker #6: Yeah. I mean, I think you can see it in our results. Relative to, again, the legal professional growth at 11% accelerating from 9% in our recent history, that's a pretty good indicator that I think we're winning in the marketplace.
Gary Bischoping: I think you can see it in our results. Relative to, again, the legal professional growth at 11%, accelerating from 9% in our recent history. That's a pretty good indicator that I think we're winning in the marketplace. I would say that the second thing is that ongoing pricing mechanism is something we continue to evaluate, and do we go to more of a consumption-based pricing approach? Some customers of ours certainly want to engage in that conversation. I think overarching, what you're going to see is the continued acceleration in the legal professional ex government growth rate. Again, a large part of that is coming from the agentic offerings, both Westlaw and CoCounsel.
Speaker #6: I would say that the second thing is that the ongoing pricing mechanism is something we continue to evaluate. And do we go to more of a consumption-based pricing approach?
Speaker #6: Some customers of ours certainly want to engage in that conversation. But I think overarching what you're going to see is we'll continue to accelerate in the legal professional ex-government growth rate.
Speaker #6: And again, a large part of that is coming from the agentic offerings both Westlaw and Coal Council.
Speaker #9: Thanks very much.
George Tong: Thanks very much.
Steve Hasker: Sure. Thanks, George.
Speaker #7: Sure. Thanks, George.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Tony Kaplan of Morgan Stanley.
Operator: We'll go next to Toni Kaplan of Morgan Stanley.
Speaker #4: Hi. Good morning. This is Yehuda Solomon on for Tony. Just had a quick one on the tax and accounting challenges. You mentioned in the quarter can you dive a little bit deeper into some of the execution challenges if it was environmental, internal, competition-based, and what gives you confidence to move past this going forward?
Yehuda Silverman: Hi, good morning. This is Yehuda Silverman on for Toni. Just had a quick one on the tax and accounting challenges you mentioned in the quarter. Can you dive a little bit deeper into some of the execution challenges, if it was environmental, internal, competition-based? What gives you confidence to move past this going forward?
Speaker #6: Yeah. It's a good question. I appreciate the follow-up. If you kind of go up periscope a little bit, we entered 2026, I think, focused on messaging our future product vision.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah. It's a good question. I appreciate the follow-up. If you go up periscope a little bit, we entered 2026, I think, focused on messaging our future product vision, for an expanded Ready to Review that integrates capabilities from a number of our offerings into a single tax workflow platform. That is absolutely the direction of travel. That, combined with Ready to Advise to then take advantage of the Ready to Review outcomes and the agentic pieces that go with that. However, I would say the messaging and the future vision, while it has been well-received, may have caused some confusion with our customers and our sales organizations over what products they should be buying today versus where are we headed with that vision. This kind of transitional period in what do we buy today, where are we going from a vision perspective?
Speaker #6: For an expanded ready-to-review, that integrates capabilities from a number of our offerings into a single tax workflow platform. And that's absolutely the direction of travel that combined with ready-to-advise to then take advantage of the ready-to-review outcomes.
Speaker #6: And the agentic pieces that go with that. However, I'd say the messaging and the future vision, while it's been well received, may have caused some confusion with our customers.
Speaker #6: And our sales organizations over what products they're they should be buying today versus kind of where are we headed with that vision. And this kind of transitional period and kind of what do we buy today?
Speaker #6: Where are we going from vision perspective? While the vision is clear and coming into focus and we'll be able we're executing against that, impacted some sales momentum in products like SurePrep here in the past tax season.
Gary Bischoping: While the vision is clear and coming into focus, and we are executing against that, impacted some sales momentum in products like SurePrep here in the past tax season. I would say, like I said, we have got a clear vision as to where we are going. It is resonating. You will hear more about that in coming events, but it may have caused a bit of confusion here in the short run.
Speaker #6: So I would say, like I said, we've got clear vision as to where we're going. It's resonating. You'll hear more about that in coming events.
Speaker #6: But it may have caused a bit of confusion here in the short run.
Speaker #7: Yeah. The thing I would add, Yehuda, is just it's not competitive. So we don't see any sort of change in the dynamics in those marketplace.
Steve Hasker: The thing I would add, Yehuda, is just it is not competitive. We do not see any sort of change in the dynamics in that marketplace. If you step back, what we have is a privileged position in terms of providing tax calculation engines to a wide variety of tax professionals, whether they are the head of tax within a Fortune 500 company, the Big Four, large strategic firms, all the way down to one and two-person firms on the high street. We have got an array of tax calculation engines that serve all of those marketplaces. Those engines are very accurate. They are constantly and almost instantly updated for the latest rules and regulations. They are cost-efficient to run, and they are deeply entrenched, with years of back data and so on and so forth.
Speaker #7: I mean, if you step back, what we have is a privileged position in terms of providing tax calculation engines to a wide variety of tax professionals, whether they're the head of tax within a Fortune 500 company.
Speaker #7: The Big Four, large strategic firms all the way down to sort of one and two-person firms on the high street. We've got an array of tax calculation engines that serve all of those marketplaces.
Speaker #7: Those engines are very accurate. They are constantly and almost instantly updated for the latest rules and regulations. They're cost-efficient to run. And they're deeply entrenched with years of back data and so on and so forth.
Steve Hasker: If you think about applying AI to that environment, there is not a lot of room to improve those tax calculation engines. The extent to which there is, we are able to do that with minimum disruption. Where AI is helpful, to Gary's point, is in all the shoulder activities, whether it is the document ingestion, the e-filing, all the way through to the follow-up and advisory recommendations. That is our belief set as we have built out Ready to Review and Ready to Advise, the sort of integrated workflows. We think this is a place where we are building on those positions with the tax calculation engines. We can automate more and more of the shoulder activities to help alleviate a pretty acute talent shortage that exists across the entire industry and across the entire CPA space. That is our vision.
Speaker #7: So, if you think about applying AI to that environment, there's not a lot of room to improve those tax calculation engines. And to the extent that there is, we're able to do that with minimal disruption.
Speaker #7: Where AI is helpful to Gary's point is in all the shoulder activities — whether it's the document ingestion, the e-filing, all the way through to the sort of follow-up and advisory recommendations.
Speaker #7: And that's our belief set as we've built out ready-to-review and ready-to-advise, the sort of integrated workflows. And so we think this is a place where we're building on that those positions with the tax calculation engines we can automate more and more of the shoulder activities to help alleviate a pretty acute talent shortage that exists across the entire industry, across the entire CPA space.
Speaker #7: And so that's our vision. We haven't executed from a go-to-market sales perspective as well as we'd like to. We've made some changes to the composition of the team and we're optimistic that we'll be on track very, very quickly.
Steve Hasker: We haven't executed from a go-to-market sales perspective as well as we'd like to. We've made some changes to the composition of the team, and we're optimistic that we'll be on track very, very quickly.
Speaker #4: Thank you.
Yehuda Silverman: Thank you.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Jason Haas with Wells Fargo.
Operator: We'll go next to Jason Haas with Wells Fargo.
Speaker #4: Hey. Good morning. And thanks for taking my questions. I'm curious if you could comment on where you're finding some efficiencies, just given some of the severance expense that you're calling out.
Jason Haas: Hey, good morning, and thanks for taking my questions. I'm curious if you could comment on where you're finding some efficiencies. Just given some of the severance expense that you're calling out, I'm curious where those efficiencies are being found in the organization. Thank you.
Speaker #4: I'm curious, yeah, where there's efficiencies are being found in the organization. Thank you.
Speaker #7: Yeah, I'll start, and I'm sure Gary will add. So, as you know, Jason, we've taken the team that drove the change program—so under Kirsty's leadership: Andrew Pierce, the addition of Mike Goddard and Liz Bank—and they're running the play here to make sure that every aspect of TR adopts agentic technology.
Steve Hasker: Yeah. I'll start, and I'm sure Gary will add. As you know, Jason, we've taken the team that drove the change program. Under Kirsty's leadership, Andrew Pierce, the addition of Mike Goddard and Liz Bank, and they're running the play here to make sure that every aspect of TR adopts agentic technology and is able to deliver higher growth and scale up without cutting headcount, potentially over time, making things more efficient. The places where we've seen progress, I think, are fairly well documented. Joel Hron has, I think, made great strides within our software engineering space and adoption of the latest cutting-edge tools. I think importantly, improving the quality of output and of our code base. Secondly, the customer support areas have seen some really promising early signs.
Speaker #7: And is able to deliver higher growth and scale up without adding headcount, and potentially, over time, making things more efficient. The places where we've seen progress, I think, are fairly well-documented.
Speaker #7: So Joel Harran is, I think, made great strides within our software engineering space. And adoption of the latest cutting-edge tools. And I think importantly, improving the quality of output and of our code base.
Speaker #7: Secondly, the customer support areas have seen some really promising early signs. And as we think about all of our functions—all the way through to our go-to-market—we see opportunity across that.
Steve Hasker: As we think about all of our functions, all the way through to our go-to-market, we see opportunity across that. We'll be pursuing that over the next 12 to 24 months with great rigor and application from all of us.
Speaker #7: So we'll be pursuing that over the next 12 to 24 months with great rigor and application from all of us.
Speaker #6: Yeah. I would just add to that that ongoing focus on finding identifying and executing against productivity is a muscle that TR has built. Over many years.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah. I'd just add to that the ongoing focus on finding, identifying, and executing against productivity is a muscle that TR has built over many years and will continue to stay in focus and will help us drive some of that investment back on the organic side as well. It's an organizational capability to drive productivity and something that's done systematically.
Speaker #6: And we'll continue to stay in focus. And we'll help us drive some of that investment back on the organic side as well. So it's an organizational capability to drive productivity and something that's done systematically.
Speaker #4: Got it. That's very helpful. And then as a follow-up, I wanted to go back to the transactional revenue was really strong in both legal and corporates.
Jason Haas: Got it. That's very helpful. As a follow-up, I wanted to go back to the transactional revenue was really strong in both legal and corporates. I guess by its nature, we shouldn't assume that continues. Is that the right assumption to make? Can you talk about, was there any one-time revenue in there or any certain products that really stood out that won't repeat going forward? Just trying to think about how to model that going forward. Thank you.
Speaker #4: I guess by its nature, we shouldn't assume that continues. Is that the right assumption to make? And can you talk about was there any one time revenue in there or any certain products that really stood out that won't repeat going forward?
Speaker #4: Just trying to think about how to model that going forward. Thank you.
Speaker #6: Yeah, I would say the one place, maybe, where it wouldn't repeat as strongly in the third quarter as in the second quarter will be in the government space.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah. I would say that the one place maybe where it wouldn't repeat as strongly in Q3 as in Q2 will be in the government space. As I called out in my remarks, that might not be as strong heading into Q3. Still confident in the full year call for the government business and accelerating through that end of year federal fiscal year. That feels good. Pagero, like I just said, has been really a shining star for us and has exceeded our expectations. We'll continue to look for that progress here in H2. I know, Steve, that there's other areas you would add.
Speaker #6: As I called out in my remarks, that might not be as strong heading the third quarter. Still confident in the full-year call for the government business and accelerating through the kind of end-of-year Fed oil fiscal year.
Speaker #6: That feels good. I mean, Paghero, like I just said, has been really a shining star for us and has exceeded our expectations. We'll continue to look for that progress here in the second half.
Speaker #6: I don't know, Steve, if there are other areas you would add.
Speaker #7: No, I think it's well said.
Steve Hasker: No, I think it's well said.
Speaker #4: Okay. Great. Thank you. That makes sense.
Jason Haas: Okay, great. Thank you. That makes sense.
Speaker #7: Thanks, Jason.
Steve Hasker: Thanks, Jason.
Speaker #1: We'll go next to Curtis Nagle of Bank of America.
Operator: We'll go next to Curtis Nagle of Bank of America.
Speaker #8: Great, thanks so much for taking the question. So, yeah, great to see continued momentum in Westlaw Advantage. Maybe if you could just comment in terms of how far we are through the contract cycle, in terms of how much of the base has been addressed. How much longer of a tailwind do you think this could be to ongoing Legal growth?
Curtis Nagle: Great. Thanks so much for taking the question. Yeah, great to see continued momentum in Westlaw Advantage. Maybe if you could just comment in terms of how far we are through the contract cycle, in terms of how much of the base has been addressed, how much longer of a tailwind do you think this could be to ongoing legal growth?
Speaker #7: Thanks, Curtis. Gary, do you want to take that?
Steve Hasker: Thanks, Curtis. Gary, do you want to take that?
Speaker #3: Yeah. Yeah. So we've not quantified the penetration or adoption on it. But there remains a good runway in Westlaw Advantage. I think more importantly, co-counsel legal, the bundled offer that bundles Westlaw Advantage, practical law dynamic, and the co-counsel capabilities, I think we're still very much early innings, both in our legal customer base and our general counsel customer base of the adoption of that.
Gary Bischoping: Yeah. We've not quantified the penetration or adoption on it, but there remains a good runway in Westlaw Advantage. I think more importantly, CoCounsel Legal, the bundled offer that bundles Westlaw Advantage, Practical Law Dynamic, and the CoCounsel capabilities. I think we're still very much early innings, both in our legal customer base and our general counsel customer base of the adoption of that. As you've heard, we're excited about the next generation version of that, really continuing or bolstering the momentum we're seeing.
Speaker #3: And as you've heard, we're excited about the next generation version of that, really continuing or bolstering the momentum we're seeing.
Speaker #8: Okay, makes sense. Thanks so much for taking the question.
Curtis Nagle: Okay. Makes sense. Thanks so much for taking the question.
Speaker #7: Thanks, Curtis.
Gary Bisbee: Thanks, Curtis.
Speaker #3: Thanks, Gary. All right. I think that's the end of the queue. Thanks, everybody. We're around and happy to follow up if you'd like. Have a good day.
Gary Bisbee: Thanks, Curtis. All right. I think that's the end of the queue. Thanks, everybody. We're around and happy to follow up if you'd like. Have a good day.
Operator: This does conclude today's conference. We thank you for your participation.