AcquisitionFinance
Elliott Investment Management Takes Stake in London Stock Exchange Group
•February 11, 2026
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Why It Matters
Elliott’s push for aggressive capital returns could reshape LSEG’s financial strategy while highlighting the growing pressure on data‑centric firms to defend margins amid AI disruption.
Key Takeaways
- •Elliott acquires undisclosed stake in LSEG, targeting buybacks
- •LSEG shares down 35% amid AI disruption fears
- •Company recently repurchased £1 billion of stock
- •AI tools threaten terminals, prompting margin improvement push
- •Partnerships with Claude and Microsoft 365 Copilot enhance data relevance
Pulse Analysis
Elliott Investment Management’s entry into LSEG marks a classic activist move, but the stakes are higher than a simple boardroom tussle. The fund’s reputation for extracting value through strategic capital allocation suggests it will lobby for a sizable share repurchase programme, leveraging LSEG’s recent £1 billion buyback as a baseline. By nudging the exchange toward higher margins, Elliott aims to reassure investors who have been spooked by a 35% share decline tied to fears that generative‑AI platforms could supplant traditional financial terminals.
For LSEG, the activist pressure arrives at a crossroads between legacy data services and emerging AI‑driven workflows. A robust buyback could boost earnings per share and signal confidence, yet the company must also invest in AI integration to protect its core offerings. Recent licensing deals with Anthropic’s Claude and Microsoft 365 Copilot illustrate LSEG’s strategy to embed its proprietary data into next‑generation tools, turning a perceived threat into a revenue catalyst. Balancing these initiatives while tightening cost structures will be critical to achieving the margin targets Elliott is likely to demand.
The broader market is watching how data providers respond to AI disruption, making LSEG a bellwether for the sector. If Elliott succeeds in extracting higher shareholder returns without compromising long‑term growth, it could set a precedent for activist involvement in other financial‑information firms. Conversely, failure to adapt could accelerate capital flight toward pure‑play AI analytics platforms. Either outcome will reshape competitive dynamics among rivals such as S&P Global and Intercontinental Exchange, underscoring the strategic importance of data ownership in an AI‑centric future.
Deal Summary
Activist hedge fund Elliott Investment Management has acquired an undisclosed stake in London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), according to sources. The move, reported on Feb. 11, 2026, signals Elliott’s push for larger share buybacks and higher profit margins. The size of the stake was not disclosed.
Article
Source: WSJ – U.S. Business (global/Asia spillover)
Updated Feb. 11, 2026 8:13 am ET
Activist investor Elliott Investment Management has taken a stake in the London Stock Exchange (LSEG) Group, according to people familiar with the matter, and is likely to push for increased stock buybacks and action to lift profit margins.
The hedge‑fund firm is making a somewhat contrarian bet. LSEG stock is down 35 % over the past year, amid mounting investor concerns that new artificial‑intelligence tools will reduce the need for financial data and analytics that the company and others offer.
Activist investors often prod companies to spin off businesses to generate value. However, Elliott isn’t pursuing that strategy here, said one of the people. Instead, it wants LSEG to consider launching a new multibillion‑pound share buyback and lift margins toward those of rivals.
LSEG, a big financial‑data provider and exchange operator, competes with peers such as S&P Global and Intercontinental Exchange, the owner of the New York Stock Exchange. It recently bought back 1 billion pounds, or some $1.37 billion, of stock.
“LSEG maintains an active and open dialogue with our investors, while remaining focused on executing our strategy,” a company spokeswoman said.
As of Tuesday’s close, LSEG had a market value of about $51 billion. Shares in LSEG rose about 1.4 % by late morning in London on Wednesday.
The Financial Times first reported Elliott’s stake in LSEG. The size of the stake held by Elliott, which counts energy major BP as another recent U.K. target, couldn’t be learned.
Elliott’s intervention follows decades of dealmaking and investor agitation involving LSEG, including failed tie‑ups with exchange operators in Canada, Germany and Hong Kong, and the purchase of Bloomberg competitor Refinitiv. In 2017, it tussled about management succession with activist investor Christopher Hohn’s TCI Fund Management.
Since the startup Anthropic launched Claude for Financial Services last summer, “LSEG shares have been a lightning rod for market fears about AI disruption risk,” Jefferies analyst Tom Mills wrote in a note last week.
The big concern for investors, Mills said, is that AI platforms displace LSEG’s desktop terminals. Traders, bankers and investors use these to execute trades, contact each other and review data, news and analysis.
LSEG’s revenue totaled £2.2 billion in the third quarter of last year. Sales of data, analytics and terminals were the biggest contributor, accounting for 44 %.
Concerns intensified last week after Anthropic released new legal tools for its Claude Cowork assistant, hitting shares in LSEG and other data companies.
LSEG and its peers argue those worries are unfounded. They contend that AI will increase the value of their services, making it easier to extract business insights and trading opportunities from raw data. Companies with proprietary data feeds say even AI tools must buy the underlying information they provide to track the markets.
“AI cannot replicate or replace our real‑time data,” LSEG Chief Executive David Schwimmer said in October.
That same month, LSEG signed a licensing deal giving Claude users access to its financial data. Another partnership incorporates its data into Microsoft 365 Copilot and agentic AI tools.
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