Acquisitions fueled growth for the tax and accounting business and executives cited increases in sales of software to accounting firms and of its OneSource corporate tax line. However, a drop in government contracts, which represent 5 percent of the business, held down growth as the award of contracts slipped from 2012 to this year.

Tax and Accounting's fourth-quarter operating profit fell to $103 million, down from $110 million a year ago. Revenue was $351 million, up from $341 million in last year's corresponding period. For the year, operating profit was $261 million, an increase of 10 percent from $237 million before the impact of currency changes while revenue rose to just over $1.2 billion, a 15-percent increase from $1.05 billion from 2011. Revenue was up 5 percent organically.

Companywide, the company reported income of $2.12 billion for 2012, a turnaround from $1.4 billion for 2011. Thomson Reuters' revenue was $13.28 billion, down 4 percent from $13.8 billion. Fourth-quarter earnings were $388 million, compared to a loss of $2.6 billion. Revenue for the last three months of 2012 was just under $3.4 billion, down from $3.58 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.

Bob Scott

• Email

Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards.  Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He  has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that.  A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind