Two competing news agencies which Bermudians depend on for global news coverage may become legally entangled.

The Financial Times (FT) reported on Friday that the rivalry took a dramatic twist when it emerged that Reuters faced a criminal inquiry into alleged use of Bloomberg information.

A grand jury in New York is considering whether Reuters improperly gained access to Bloomberg data.

The investigation involves Reuters Analytics, a subsidiary which collects and distributes real time and historical information on US bonds -- one of Bloomberg's areas of strength, the FT said.

Financial information firms such as Reuters and Dow Jones Markets have tried to catch Bloomberg as the nineties leader in bond market information.

Reuters Analytics was formed four years ago.

Bloomberg is a successful, privately held firm headed by majority stake holder Michael Bloomberg. US investment bank, Merrill Lynch has a 20 percent stake.

Reuters said that it was cooperating with New York federal prosecutors' enquiries and it had contracted legal assistance to carry our internal probes.

The FT said that Reuters terminals are generally preferred by traders for their foreign exchange rate and equity price data, and Dow Jones Markets transmits the prices followed by most traders of US Treasury bonds.

Reuters said in a statement that its analytics division is involved in operations relating to "Reuters fixed income data base'' and those operations relate to a small part of the group's total product line. The news organisation said Reuters Analytics was the subject of a grand jury investigation in New York on whether it "improperly obtained access to, and used information from'' Bloomberg's product.

BUSINESS BUC