http://wallstreetandtech.com/regulatory-compliance/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220301686&cid=nl_wallstreettech_daily
ConvergEx said it's acquiring the assets of Cogent Consulting LLC, a leading developer of commission management software for buy-and-sell side firms. ConvergEx signed a definitive agreement to acquire the assets of the Summit, New Jersey-based-company, whose software enables investment advisors and hedge funds to gain control over their trading and research commissions. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed. The deal is set to close before Nov.2, 2009. ....
Friday, October 9, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Orc Software completes acquisition of Cameron Systems
http://www.cisionwire.com/orc-software/orc-software-completes-acquisition-of-cameron-systems
Orc Software (SSE: ORC), the leading provider of technology for advanced trading, market making and brokerage, today announced completion of the acquisition of the leading Financial Information Exchange (FIX) messaging platform provider, Cameron Systems.....
Orc Software (SSE: ORC), the leading provider of technology for advanced trading, market making and brokerage, today announced completion of the acquisition of the leading Financial Information Exchange (FIX) messaging platform provider, Cameron Systems.....
LiquidPoint Acquired by BNY ConvergEx Group
http://www.allbusiness.com/services/business-services/4348551-1.html
LiquidPoint, LLC, an options execution and trading technology firm that provides services to institutional traders, prime brokers, hedge funds, financial intermediaries and options exchanges announced today that it is being acquired by BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC a leading provider of global agency brokerage and investment technology solutions.....
LiquidPoint, LLC, an options execution and trading technology firm that provides services to institutional traders, prime brokers, hedge funds, financial intermediaries and options exchanges announced today that it is being acquired by BNY ConvergEx Group, LLC a leading provider of global agency brokerage and investment technology solutions.....
royalblue Buying LatentZero
http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?id=503825&ref=g_sitelink
On 16 April 2007, royalblue group, a provider of predominantly sell-side trading platforms, announced it intends to acquire LatentZero, a privately owned supplier of order management systems (OMSs) to investment managers, in a transaction valued at £63 million.....
On 16 April 2007, royalblue group, a provider of predominantly sell-side trading platforms, announced it intends to acquire LatentZero, a privately owned supplier of order management systems (OMSs) to investment managers, in a transaction valued at £63 million.....
ITG Buys Macgregor
http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?doc_cd=129881&ref=g_fromdoc
On 13 July 2005, ITG announced it will buy privately held Macgregor for approximately $230 million in cash. The deal is expected to close within 90 days. ITG is a brokerage firm that provides electronic order execution and related services for institutional firms. Its 2004 revenue totaled $335 million, generating $41 million net income. Macgregor is a provider of order management systems (OMS) for asset managers. Expected 2005 revenue is approximately $50 million, with pre-tax earnings of $16 million.....
On 13 July 2005, ITG announced it will buy privately held Macgregor for approximately $230 million in cash. The deal is expected to close within 90 days. ITG is a brokerage firm that provides electronic order execution and related services for institutional firms. Its 2004 revenue totaled $335 million, generating $41 million net income. Macgregor is a provider of order management systems (OMS) for asset managers. Expected 2005 revenue is approximately $50 million, with pre-tax earnings of $16 million.....
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Interactive Brokers Buys FutureTrade to Build Prime Services
http://www.securitiesindustry.com/news/21743-1.html?zkPrintable=true
In a bid to bolster its nascent prime brokerage business, Greenwich, Conn.-based Interactive Brokers Group (IB) is acquiring FutureTrade Technologies, a trading platform that caters to sizable hedge funds and other institutional customers, for an undisclosed amount of cash. The deal includes subsidiary FutureTrade Securities.
Thomas Peterffy, chairman and founder of Interactive Brokers, said he anticipates that Lake Forest, Calif.-based FutureTrade’s platform will be integrated with IB’s within four to six months. “We expect to be able to provide Interactive Brokers’ routing and execution technology to FutureTrade customers, including our options executions,” said Peterffy.
For FutureTrade’s 200 customers--which have an average of $200 million in assets under management--the deal will provide access to a much broader range of asset classes and geographical markets. FutureTrade offers trading in U.S. options and domestic and international equities, while IB also provides electronic trading access to non-U.S. options markets, futures, foreign exchange and fixed income on more than 70 exchanges and trading venues around the world, through a single account.
Interactive Brokers introduced prime brokerage services early this year, in preparation for the arrival of portfolio-margining accounts in April. The firm was one of 12 self-clearing broker-dealers initially approved to offer the accounts. Of the 2,000 such accounts opened by Sept. 30, IB had about 1,300, though its accounts were generally smaller than other brokers’.
Portfolio-margin accounts represented $58 billion in margin debt, of a total $380 billion, by July 31, though both numbers declined due to the market volatility this summer.
FutureTrade does not provide prime brokerage services to its customers, some of which manage billions of dollars in assets, according to Murray Finebaum, president and CEO of FutureTrade. However, the acquisition is based in part on its clients finding the firms’ integrated execution and clearing services attractive enough to switch over to IB for prime brokerage.
“The offering comes at a time when hedge funds want to trade globally to get alpha,” said Finebaum, who joined FutureTrade in 2001, three years after the firm started trading. Finebaum, whose Wall Street career includes stints as COO of Instinet and COO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Globex platform for Reuters, said FutureTrade and Interactive Brokers provide some overlapping services, but other services will be complimentary.
“We do a number of things that are uniquely suited to hedge funds’ workflow in terms of capturing trades, downloading them to prime brokers, and marking positions to market in real time,” said Finebaum. “Interactive Brokers also does a number of those things, but we do it specifically for hedge funds.” Finebaum will help integrate the firms’ trading platforms and build the prime brokerage business.
“The FutureTrade platform complements IB’s facilities and accordingly, when the two platforms are fully integrated, all facilities of both platforms will be available to all customers,” Peterffy said.
Interactive Brokers, which includes the Timber Hill market-making subsidiary, began brokerage operations in 1993. In May, the company sold 40 million shares of stock in an initial public offering, a 10 percent interest in the 500-person firm that in June executed 14 percent of the world’s equity options and 19 percent of U.S. options.
In a bid to bolster its nascent prime brokerage business, Greenwich, Conn.-based Interactive Brokers Group (IB) is acquiring FutureTrade Technologies, a trading platform that caters to sizable hedge funds and other institutional customers, for an undisclosed amount of cash. The deal includes subsidiary FutureTrade Securities.
Thomas Peterffy, chairman and founder of Interactive Brokers, said he anticipates that Lake Forest, Calif.-based FutureTrade’s platform will be integrated with IB’s within four to six months. “We expect to be able to provide Interactive Brokers’ routing and execution technology to FutureTrade customers, including our options executions,” said Peterffy.
For FutureTrade’s 200 customers--which have an average of $200 million in assets under management--the deal will provide access to a much broader range of asset classes and geographical markets. FutureTrade offers trading in U.S. options and domestic and international equities, while IB also provides electronic trading access to non-U.S. options markets, futures, foreign exchange and fixed income on more than 70 exchanges and trading venues around the world, through a single account.
Interactive Brokers introduced prime brokerage services early this year, in preparation for the arrival of portfolio-margining accounts in April. The firm was one of 12 self-clearing broker-dealers initially approved to offer the accounts. Of the 2,000 such accounts opened by Sept. 30, IB had about 1,300, though its accounts were generally smaller than other brokers’.
Portfolio-margin accounts represented $58 billion in margin debt, of a total $380 billion, by July 31, though both numbers declined due to the market volatility this summer.
FutureTrade does not provide prime brokerage services to its customers, some of which manage billions of dollars in assets, according to Murray Finebaum, president and CEO of FutureTrade. However, the acquisition is based in part on its clients finding the firms’ integrated execution and clearing services attractive enough to switch over to IB for prime brokerage.
“The offering comes at a time when hedge funds want to trade globally to get alpha,” said Finebaum, who joined FutureTrade in 2001, three years after the firm started trading. Finebaum, whose Wall Street career includes stints as COO of Instinet and COO of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange’s Globex platform for Reuters, said FutureTrade and Interactive Brokers provide some overlapping services, but other services will be complimentary.
“We do a number of things that are uniquely suited to hedge funds’ workflow in terms of capturing trades, downloading them to prime brokers, and marking positions to market in real time,” said Finebaum. “Interactive Brokers also does a number of those things, but we do it specifically for hedge funds.” Finebaum will help integrate the firms’ trading platforms and build the prime brokerage business.
“The FutureTrade platform complements IB’s facilities and accordingly, when the two platforms are fully integrated, all facilities of both platforms will be available to all customers,” Peterffy said.
Interactive Brokers, which includes the Timber Hill market-making subsidiary, began brokerage operations in 1993. In May, the company sold 40 million shares of stock in an initial public offering, a 10 percent interest in the 500-person firm that in June executed 14 percent of the world’s equity options and 19 percent of U.S. options.
Citigroup is acquiring Lava Trading
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/news/trading/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=22104423
Citigroup disclosed on Friday that it's acquiring Lava Trading, a leading supplier of direct-access electronic-trading software and services to brokerage firms, institutional investors and hedge funds.
"I think it catapults us to a leading position in the electronic-execution arena," says James Forese, managing director and head of Citigroup Global Equities.
Lava will become a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of Citigroup following the closing of the transaction, which is expected during the third quarter of 2004. Richard Korhammer will remain chief executive officer of Lava and report to Forese.
Lava pulls together all the market-data from exchanges, market makers and electronic communications networks in listed and over-the-counter stocks; figures out which destination has the best price; and then routes the order there in milliseconds.
Though Forese declined to discuss how much Citigroup is paying for Lava, Robert Iati, director of TowerGroup's securities and capital markets practice, estimates the price "is north of $500 million" and could be as high as $1 billion. This is not surprising, he suggests, since Lava has about two-thirds of the market share in the direct-access trading space, he says. "Certainly they have dominant market share, a relatively unique technology and a great brand," says Iati.
The Citi/Lava deal follows a recent trend among brokerage houses acquiring direct-access trading technology providers. Most recently, BNY Securities acquired Sonic Financial Technologies in March and Bank of America Securities bought Direct Access Corporation in February. Similarly Goldman Sachs bought Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, which owns REDIPlus as its direct-access platform.
"Basically, the sell-side is looking to deepen its relationships with its buy-side clients and it sees the purchase of direct-access as a way to do that, and it helps them with access to multiple-market destinations," says Jodi Burns, senior analyst at Celent Communications . Forese says the investment bank was attracted to two sets of technologies that Lava offers in equities: One allows broker-dealers to route orders "intelligently, quickly and reliably. And, a second set of products are targeted toward institutional investors, which allow those clients to send orders either to broker-dealers or to exchanges or to execution points around the marketplace."
However, Iati thinks that the value Citi sees with this purchase "is much more of an internal value. They're going to offer some service that Lava provides and not allow anybody to offer it," he speculates.
But the acquisition immediately raised concerns from analysts who say the Lava Trading tools will no longer be regarded as broker-neutral because a broker will own it.
"I think the concerns about neutrality are valid," says Burns. Though Citigroup and Lava have said they are going to keep Lava as a separate entity, Burns says, "They're saying all the right things, but it remains to be seen. We really don't know until the acquisition is implemented," she says.
Iati says the transaction has to affect top broker-dealers, such as JPMorgan Securities, which recently signed a two-year contract to use Lava's equity trading and order-management system, ColorPalette.
"If you are a sell-side competitor [of Citigroup], I think it has to affect you," says Iati, who adds, "It's really impossible to measure how much business might be lost because of it."
Meanwhile, Citigroup is assuring other broker-dealers and buy-side institutions that it will maintain Lava Trading as a broker-neutral platform. "We will aggressively be marketing the product to our institutional-investor clients, and there, we will be endorsing the multi-dealer-broker neutral strategy as well, which is in keeping with what we believe our customers want."
Forese notes that Citigroup has been a user of Lava's broker-dealer products for a number of years, as have a number of large and small broker-dealers. "We will continue to use those [products] as we hope and expect other broker-dealers to use them," he says.
In addition to maintaining Lava as a separate company and as a separate legal entity, Forese says Citigroup is "going to create robust policies and procedures around information flow, for the most part restricting information flow out of Lava. We intend to have that audited by both internal and external auditors," he notes, "so that our clients can know that we are in compliance with those information policies."
In order to maintain confidentiality of all client data, the release states that Lava -- which has nearly 200 employees -- will operate independently of Citigroup and will continue to be housed at its 95 Morton St. headquarters in New York City.
Even with these precautions. Burn says, "Lava will be seen as a Citigroup product. It's hard to be seen as broker-neutral when you are owned by a broker," she says. "This is not specific to Lava, it is a general difficulty," she adds. "The burden is on Citigroup to set this up so that Lava actually remains broker-neutral," she adds.
Citigroup disclosed on Friday that it's acquiring Lava Trading, a leading supplier of direct-access electronic-trading software and services to brokerage firms, institutional investors and hedge funds.
"I think it catapults us to a leading position in the electronic-execution arena," says James Forese, managing director and head of Citigroup Global Equities.
Lava will become a wholly owned, independent subsidiary of Citigroup following the closing of the transaction, which is expected during the third quarter of 2004. Richard Korhammer will remain chief executive officer of Lava and report to Forese.
Lava pulls together all the market-data from exchanges, market makers and electronic communications networks in listed and over-the-counter stocks; figures out which destination has the best price; and then routes the order there in milliseconds.
Though Forese declined to discuss how much Citigroup is paying for Lava, Robert Iati, director of TowerGroup's securities and capital markets practice, estimates the price "is north of $500 million" and could be as high as $1 billion. This is not surprising, he suggests, since Lava has about two-thirds of the market share in the direct-access trading space, he says. "Certainly they have dominant market share, a relatively unique technology and a great brand," says Iati.
The Citi/Lava deal follows a recent trend among brokerage houses acquiring direct-access trading technology providers. Most recently, BNY Securities acquired Sonic Financial Technologies in March and Bank of America Securities bought Direct Access Corporation in February. Similarly Goldman Sachs bought Spear, Leeds & Kellogg, which owns REDIPlus as its direct-access platform.
"Basically, the sell-side is looking to deepen its relationships with its buy-side clients and it sees the purchase of direct-access as a way to do that, and it helps them with access to multiple-market destinations," says Jodi Burns, senior analyst at Celent Communications . Forese says the investment bank was attracted to two sets of technologies that Lava offers in equities: One allows broker-dealers to route orders "intelligently, quickly and reliably. And, a second set of products are targeted toward institutional investors, which allow those clients to send orders either to broker-dealers or to exchanges or to execution points around the marketplace."
However, Iati thinks that the value Citi sees with this purchase "is much more of an internal value. They're going to offer some service that Lava provides and not allow anybody to offer it," he speculates.
But the acquisition immediately raised concerns from analysts who say the Lava Trading tools will no longer be regarded as broker-neutral because a broker will own it.
"I think the concerns about neutrality are valid," says Burns. Though Citigroup and Lava have said they are going to keep Lava as a separate entity, Burns says, "They're saying all the right things, but it remains to be seen. We really don't know until the acquisition is implemented," she says.
Iati says the transaction has to affect top broker-dealers, such as JPMorgan Securities, which recently signed a two-year contract to use Lava's equity trading and order-management system, ColorPalette.
"If you are a sell-side competitor [of Citigroup], I think it has to affect you," says Iati, who adds, "It's really impossible to measure how much business might be lost because of it."
Meanwhile, Citigroup is assuring other broker-dealers and buy-side institutions that it will maintain Lava Trading as a broker-neutral platform. "We will aggressively be marketing the product to our institutional-investor clients, and there, we will be endorsing the multi-dealer-broker neutral strategy as well, which is in keeping with what we believe our customers want."
Forese notes that Citigroup has been a user of Lava's broker-dealer products for a number of years, as have a number of large and small broker-dealers. "We will continue to use those [products] as we hope and expect other broker-dealers to use them," he says.
In addition to maintaining Lava as a separate company and as a separate legal entity, Forese says Citigroup is "going to create robust policies and procedures around information flow, for the most part restricting information flow out of Lava. We intend to have that audited by both internal and external auditors," he notes, "so that our clients can know that we are in compliance with those information policies."
In order to maintain confidentiality of all client data, the release states that Lava -- which has nearly 200 employees -- will operate independently of Citigroup and will continue to be housed at its 95 Morton St. headquarters in New York City.
Even with these precautions. Burn says, "Lava will be seen as a Citigroup product. It's hard to be seen as broker-neutral when you are owned by a broker," she says. "This is not specific to Lava, it is a general difficulty," she adds. "The burden is on Citigroup to set this up so that Lava actually remains broker-neutral," she adds.
SunGard Scoops Up GL Trade
http://www.tradersmagazine.com/issues/20_286/102071-1.html?zkPrintable=true
In a surprise move, SunGard last month announced it intended to snap up 65 percent of GL Trade, the Paris-based financial services giant, for $625 million. The deal encompasses NYSE Euronext's 40 percent stake in GL Trade, which the exchange operator decided to sell as part of a move to focus on its growing in-house technology and infrastructure services. SunGard expects to issue a tender offer for the remaining shares of GL Trade after its block acquisition is completed.
The deal could enable SunGard to catch up with Fidessa, its main rival among sellside order management system providers in the U.S. Both firms are currently in expansion mode, focusing on cross-asset-class trading across more geographies for their customers. Fidessa, a London-based company with 172 sellside customers and 10,000 users globally for its installed and hosted OMS product, is currently considered further along that path.
However, the SunGard deal, expected to close by the end of the year, could give the Brass OMS and execution business a big boost. "SunGard had to expand its offerings because more of the financial institutions using Brass were looking for global connectivity and exposure," said Tom Price, a research director at research and advisory firm TowerGroup. "SunGard needed extensibility into the Europe and Asian markets to stay competitive."
Brass, with more than 100 broker-dealer clients, is a powerhouse in the U.S., but hasn't expanded overseas. GL Trade's strength lies in Europe and is growing in Asia. The French company, whose revenues last year were 203 million euros, up from 185 million euros in 2006, earns most of that from its trading and OMS platform and execution-related services. Those services include GL Net, a vast order-routing and market data network that connects 700 financial institutions and 133 market centers and exchanges around the world, and an execution management system for the buyside.
Raj Mahajan, president of SunGard's Brass business unit, acknowledges that Brass has been viewed as serving a U.S. cash-equities business. "We're adding geographical reach and international capabilities to Brass customers, along with new instrument coverage such as options capabilities," he said. SunGard's MicroHedge, an options trading and analytics platform used by market makers and brokers, for example, is being integrated into Brass so customers can use the platforms together more efficiently. Mahajan declined to comment on the planned deal with GL Trade.
With Fidessa's U.S. OMS business growing, Brass is also beefing up its domestic capabilities. One of Brass' broader goals, Mahajan said, is to make their trading more efficient and less expensive across the trading life cycle. "We're looking at every aspect of the life of a trade our broker-dealers execute, from what they do in the OMS to direct-market-access services, algorithms, how they access displayed and dark venues, how they clear the trade, and the compliance process," Mahajan said. "We are trying to save firms money across that entire life cycle." Brass early this past summer also rolled out a Liquidity Services suite of execution-related products, including smart routing and sponsored access through a broker-dealer subsidiary.
GL Trade, for its part, has focused on building out its European and Asian business. It tried to expand its OMS business to the U.S., as well, but didn't gain significant traction. In 2007, 16 percent of the firm's revenue came from the U.S. However, the company is confident about its products. In its May annual report, GL Trade said that "In equity markets, our systems are far ahead of competitors such as SunGard, Fidessa and Orc Software." A GL Trade spokesperson said GL Trade and SunGard are focusing on the acquisition right now and "haven't decided on a country-by-country, product-by-product road map following the acquisition."
Fidessa declined to comment directly on the GL Trade deal. However, Martin Hakker, the company's executive vice president of marketing, noted that Fidessa is continuing to build out its sellside OMS business by supporting trading in more asset classes and adding more advanced tools and analytics for program and pairs trading.
"Traditionally, our growth has been organic rather than through acquisition," he said. "That leads to a more tightly integrated solution in the end."
Fidessa is also responding to customers' increased demand for international trading. Fidessa's enterprise trading platform, used in-house by some of the biggest broker-dealers, supports cross-asset-class trading and has access to 94 exchanges globally. Later this year, Hakker said, Fidessa's growing U.S.-hosted OMS will offer foreign-market trading. Currently, the hosted platform is used primarily within its users' domestic market.
In a surprise move, SunGard last month announced it intended to snap up 65 percent of GL Trade, the Paris-based financial services giant, for $625 million. The deal encompasses NYSE Euronext's 40 percent stake in GL Trade, which the exchange operator decided to sell as part of a move to focus on its growing in-house technology and infrastructure services. SunGard expects to issue a tender offer for the remaining shares of GL Trade after its block acquisition is completed.
The deal could enable SunGard to catch up with Fidessa, its main rival among sellside order management system providers in the U.S. Both firms are currently in expansion mode, focusing on cross-asset-class trading across more geographies for their customers. Fidessa, a London-based company with 172 sellside customers and 10,000 users globally for its installed and hosted OMS product, is currently considered further along that path.
However, the SunGard deal, expected to close by the end of the year, could give the Brass OMS and execution business a big boost. "SunGard had to expand its offerings because more of the financial institutions using Brass were looking for global connectivity and exposure," said Tom Price, a research director at research and advisory firm TowerGroup. "SunGard needed extensibility into the Europe and Asian markets to stay competitive."
Brass, with more than 100 broker-dealer clients, is a powerhouse in the U.S., but hasn't expanded overseas. GL Trade's strength lies in Europe and is growing in Asia. The French company, whose revenues last year were 203 million euros, up from 185 million euros in 2006, earns most of that from its trading and OMS platform and execution-related services. Those services include GL Net, a vast order-routing and market data network that connects 700 financial institutions and 133 market centers and exchanges around the world, and an execution management system for the buyside.
Raj Mahajan, president of SunGard's Brass business unit, acknowledges that Brass has been viewed as serving a U.S. cash-equities business. "We're adding geographical reach and international capabilities to Brass customers, along with new instrument coverage such as options capabilities," he said. SunGard's MicroHedge, an options trading and analytics platform used by market makers and brokers, for example, is being integrated into Brass so customers can use the platforms together more efficiently. Mahajan declined to comment on the planned deal with GL Trade.
With Fidessa's U.S. OMS business growing, Brass is also beefing up its domestic capabilities. One of Brass' broader goals, Mahajan said, is to make their trading more efficient and less expensive across the trading life cycle. "We're looking at every aspect of the life of a trade our broker-dealers execute, from what they do in the OMS to direct-market-access services, algorithms, how they access displayed and dark venues, how they clear the trade, and the compliance process," Mahajan said. "We are trying to save firms money across that entire life cycle." Brass early this past summer also rolled out a Liquidity Services suite of execution-related products, including smart routing and sponsored access through a broker-dealer subsidiary.
GL Trade, for its part, has focused on building out its European and Asian business. It tried to expand its OMS business to the U.S., as well, but didn't gain significant traction. In 2007, 16 percent of the firm's revenue came from the U.S. However, the company is confident about its products. In its May annual report, GL Trade said that "In equity markets, our systems are far ahead of competitors such as SunGard, Fidessa and Orc Software." A GL Trade spokesperson said GL Trade and SunGard are focusing on the acquisition right now and "haven't decided on a country-by-country, product-by-product road map following the acquisition."
Fidessa declined to comment directly on the GL Trade deal. However, Martin Hakker, the company's executive vice president of marketing, noted that Fidessa is continuing to build out its sellside OMS business by supporting trading in more asset classes and adding more advanced tools and analytics for program and pairs trading.
"Traditionally, our growth has been organic rather than through acquisition," he said. "That leads to a more tightly integrated solution in the end."
Fidessa is also responding to customers' increased demand for international trading. Fidessa's enterprise trading platform, used in-house by some of the biggest broker-dealers, supports cross-asset-class trading and has access to 94 exchanges globally. Later this year, Hakker said, Fidessa's growing U.S.-hosted OMS will offer foreign-market trading. Currently, the hosted platform is used primarily within its users' domestic market.
NYSE Euronext to Acquire Nyfix
http://www.wallstreetandtech.com/trading-technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=219500295
NYSE Euronext announced today it will acquire, through its subsidiary NYSE Technologies, Nyfix, a provider of electronic trading services including trading workstations, trade messaging software, and trade messaging services, in an all-cash deal for $1.675 per share of common stock. The total value of the deal is approximately $144 million, including preferred stock consideration. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Among the crown jewels of Nyfix are its U.S. and European Millenium dark pools, which have recently been migrated to a new high-performance technology architecture the company calls HPX. Because of the new architecture, the U.S. dark pool is said to be capable of acknowledging client orders in fewer than three milliseconds.
Upon closing, the Nyfix Fix business, including Fix Software and the Nyfix Marketplace, will become part of the offerings provided by NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology division of NYSE Euronext. The Nyfix Marketplace is a FIX-based community where more than 1,000 global trading counterparties connect to one another via more than 9,000 FIX-based messaging channels. The integration of the FIX Software business and the Nyfix Marketplace complements NYSE Technologies' commercial technology products. NYSE Euronext will explore various alternatives for the Nyfix Transactions Services business, including its Millennium dark pool.
Nyfix CEO Howard Edelstein stated: "The agreement we have reached with NYSE Euronext represents substantial value for Nyfix shareholders. This is an all-cash deal at a premium to the current market for Nyfix shares. Nyfix customers will also benefit greatly through the combination of two of the industry's leading trading communities, creating a global transaction marketplace connecting buy-side and sell-side, as well as from the strength of the NYSE Euronext platform and global brand."
Stanley Young, Chief Executive Officer of NYSE Technologies and co-CIO, NYSE Euronext, said: "NYFIX is a natural extension of our connectivity business and fits nicely into our SFTI Integrated Partner Solutions, which currently enables hundreds of technology providers to offer value added products and services to participating firms. The synergies will be particularly apparent to the pre-trade buy- and sell-side communities, which will benefit from a broad combination of technology assets and connections for efficient end-to-end transaction processing."
Once the acquisition is complete, the NYFIX business will report to Mr. Young. Bob Moitoso will continue to lead the NYFIX FIX business. Mr. Edelstein will stay on through the close of the transaction.
NYSE Euronext announced today it will acquire, through its subsidiary NYSE Technologies, Nyfix, a provider of electronic trading services including trading workstations, trade messaging software, and trade messaging services, in an all-cash deal for $1.675 per share of common stock. The total value of the deal is approximately $144 million, including preferred stock consideration. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2009.
Among the crown jewels of Nyfix are its U.S. and European Millenium dark pools, which have recently been migrated to a new high-performance technology architecture the company calls HPX. Because of the new architecture, the U.S. dark pool is said to be capable of acknowledging client orders in fewer than three milliseconds.
Upon closing, the Nyfix Fix business, including Fix Software and the Nyfix Marketplace, will become part of the offerings provided by NYSE Technologies, the commercial technology division of NYSE Euronext. The Nyfix Marketplace is a FIX-based community where more than 1,000 global trading counterparties connect to one another via more than 9,000 FIX-based messaging channels. The integration of the FIX Software business and the Nyfix Marketplace complements NYSE Technologies' commercial technology products. NYSE Euronext will explore various alternatives for the Nyfix Transactions Services business, including its Millennium dark pool.
Nyfix CEO Howard Edelstein stated: "The agreement we have reached with NYSE Euronext represents substantial value for Nyfix shareholders. This is an all-cash deal at a premium to the current market for Nyfix shares. Nyfix customers will also benefit greatly through the combination of two of the industry's leading trading communities, creating a global transaction marketplace connecting buy-side and sell-side, as well as from the strength of the NYSE Euronext platform and global brand."
Stanley Young, Chief Executive Officer of NYSE Technologies and co-CIO, NYSE Euronext, said: "NYFIX is a natural extension of our connectivity business and fits nicely into our SFTI Integrated Partner Solutions, which currently enables hundreds of technology providers to offer value added products and services to participating firms. The synergies will be particularly apparent to the pre-trade buy- and sell-side communities, which will benefit from a broad combination of technology assets and connections for efficient end-to-end transaction processing."
Once the acquisition is complete, the NYFIX business will report to Mr. Young. Bob Moitoso will continue to lead the NYFIX FIX business. Mr. Edelstein will stay on through the close of the transaction.
London Stock Exchange to Buy SriLanka based MilleniumIT
http://wallstreetandtech.com/exchanges/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=220000655&cid=nl_wallstreettech_daily
In the ongoing arms race among exchanges to provide low latency, win order activity and broaden their businesses, the latest move is the London Stock Exchange's announcement today that it will acquire MillenniumIT, a Sri Lankan-based technology services company serving the capital markets industry, in a transaction expected to be completed in mid-October.
MillenniumIT will provide the Exchange with a low latency trading system to replace its current TradElect platform. It is hoped that the backing of the Exchange will help MillenniumIT grow its global exchange technology business.
Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month of his plans to ditch the existing TradElect platform, which was installed only two years ago and cost 40 million pounds to develop.
"Rolet's move to scrap TradElect is just one of a number of bold decisions that have signaled the chief executive's determination to break with the past and shake up the 208-year-old exchange," the paper wrote. Among other actions, the CEO has conducted a reorganization that resulted in the loss of more than 200 jobs, the Jounal reported.
"Improving our technology and increasing our competitive position in the fast-moving trading environment is vital," Rolet said in a statement today. "This transaction enables the Group to implement a new, more agile, innovative and efficient IT capability for our future business development as well as running a new cash trading platform which will provide substantially lower latency, significantly higher capacity and improved scalability. It will also offer cost saving opportunities in the future and give the Group a footprint in Asia. Moreover, MillenniumIT is a proven business, already serving multiple clients in multiple geographies, including some of the best known in their fields."
MillenniumIT's CEO, Tony Weeresinghe, will stay on and report directly to Rolet. "This transaction with London Stock Exchange Group is a tribute to the innovative culture of our company, the quality of our technology solutions and our deep pool of talented staff," Weeresinghe said today. "The Group's backing gives us the resources to continue supporting our existing customers, expanding the company into other markets and investing for the future."
David Lester, Director of Information and Technology, London Stock Exchange Group, said: "MillenniumIT are a leader in developing low cost high performance trading platforms and financial markets software. Going forward, they will be the Group's in-house software development team, gradually replacing our current suppliers and bringing intellectual know-how and properties fully within the company. We are excited that by the end of 2010 their proven trading platform will provide our clients with sub-millisecond trading latencies, giving the Group a very fast, multi-product, cost efficient scalable trading platform. The transition will be carefully managed, with further enhancements to TradElect planned in the interim."
The LSE will begin migrating clients to MillenniumIT's trading system from the end of 2010, replacing TradElect, Infolect, and other interfaces. The new platform will allow the Exchange to enrich its functionality, in particular for Italian clients, with the possibility of accommodating both trading after hours and stop loss orders.
IT development and operational costs for the Exchange will be reduced, it says, resulting in estimated annual cost savings of at least 10 million pounds in the fiscal year 2011-12 time period.
Depreciation of investment in the current TradElect trading platform will be accelerated as a result of the transaction, and further planned upgrades that take place in the interim will be taken as operating expenses in the period they occur. In total, these are expected to represent non-recurring incremental costs of 25 million pounds in fiscal year 2010.
Under the terms of the Offer, the Group has offered to acquire 100 per cent of MillenniumIT's shares for cash consideration with a share alternative. It is estimated that 73% of the total deal consideration will be paid in cash, with the rest in new LSEG shares to be issued.
In the ongoing arms race among exchanges to provide low latency, win order activity and broaden their businesses, the latest move is the London Stock Exchange's announcement today that it will acquire MillenniumIT, a Sri Lankan-based technology services company serving the capital markets industry, in a transaction expected to be completed in mid-October.
MillenniumIT will provide the Exchange with a low latency trading system to replace its current TradElect platform. It is hoped that the backing of the Exchange will help MillenniumIT grow its global exchange technology business.
Xavier Rolet, chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, told the Wall Street Journal earlier this month of his plans to ditch the existing TradElect platform, which was installed only two years ago and cost 40 million pounds to develop.
"Rolet's move to scrap TradElect is just one of a number of bold decisions that have signaled the chief executive's determination to break with the past and shake up the 208-year-old exchange," the paper wrote. Among other actions, the CEO has conducted a reorganization that resulted in the loss of more than 200 jobs, the Jounal reported.
"Improving our technology and increasing our competitive position in the fast-moving trading environment is vital," Rolet said in a statement today. "This transaction enables the Group to implement a new, more agile, innovative and efficient IT capability for our future business development as well as running a new cash trading platform which will provide substantially lower latency, significantly higher capacity and improved scalability. It will also offer cost saving opportunities in the future and give the Group a footprint in Asia. Moreover, MillenniumIT is a proven business, already serving multiple clients in multiple geographies, including some of the best known in their fields."
MillenniumIT's CEO, Tony Weeresinghe, will stay on and report directly to Rolet. "This transaction with London Stock Exchange Group is a tribute to the innovative culture of our company, the quality of our technology solutions and our deep pool of talented staff," Weeresinghe said today. "The Group's backing gives us the resources to continue supporting our existing customers, expanding the company into other markets and investing for the future."
David Lester, Director of Information and Technology, London Stock Exchange Group, said: "MillenniumIT are a leader in developing low cost high performance trading platforms and financial markets software. Going forward, they will be the Group's in-house software development team, gradually replacing our current suppliers and bringing intellectual know-how and properties fully within the company. We are excited that by the end of 2010 their proven trading platform will provide our clients with sub-millisecond trading latencies, giving the Group a very fast, multi-product, cost efficient scalable trading platform. The transition will be carefully managed, with further enhancements to TradElect planned in the interim."
The LSE will begin migrating clients to MillenniumIT's trading system from the end of 2010, replacing TradElect, Infolect, and other interfaces. The new platform will allow the Exchange to enrich its functionality, in particular for Italian clients, with the possibility of accommodating both trading after hours and stop loss orders.
IT development and operational costs for the Exchange will be reduced, it says, resulting in estimated annual cost savings of at least 10 million pounds in the fiscal year 2011-12 time period.
Depreciation of investment in the current TradElect trading platform will be accelerated as a result of the transaction, and further planned upgrades that take place in the interim will be taken as operating expenses in the period they occur. In total, these are expected to represent non-recurring incremental costs of 25 million pounds in fiscal year 2010.
Under the terms of the Offer, the Group has offered to acquire 100 per cent of MillenniumIT's shares for cash consideration with a share alternative. It is estimated that 73% of the total deal consideration will be paid in cash, with the rest in new LSEG shares to be issued.
BSE to finalise IT co buy to get a tech edge in trading
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Markets/Stocks/Market-News/BSE-to-finalise-IT-co-buy-to-get-a-tech-edge-in-trading/articleshow/5001176.cms
MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) board will meet on Saturday to finalise the acquisition of Marketplace Technologies, a Mumbai-based IT
solutions firm focused on exchange-traded shares, derivatives and commodities markets in India. The objective of the bourse is to develop proprietary technology to enhance BSE’s trading and clearing facilities, and thus, help faster execution of trades and introduction of new products.
According to people familiar with the deal, BSE will pay around Rs 40 crore for buying out the Navi Mumbai-based firm. The board has already given an in-principal approval for the proposed transaction, according to the people.
“No comment,” said a BSE official in response to the detailed questionnaire by ET.
In January last year, the bourse had signed a deal with the Nasdaq OMX group for a new trading and clearing platform in an attempt to overhaul its IT infrastructure. However, the deal was subsequently scrapped in October after differences between the two parties on some technical specifications as well as the timeline for delivery.
Traded turnover in the cash segment of BSE is around one-fourths that on rival National Stock Exchange. In the derivatives segment, NSE clocks around Rs 70,000 crore of turnover daily, while BSE’s derivative segment hardly sees any trades. The BSE top brass feels that overhauling its trading technology will be the first step towards narrowing the market share gap with its arch rival.
It is also learnt that the board will consider appointment of Ashish Kumar Chauhan as the deputy chief executive of the bourse. According to market sources, Mr Chauhan is the brain behind Marketplace Technologies. When contacted by ET, Mr Chauhan, who is currently CIO at Reliance Industries and also the CEO of Mumbai Indians, RIL promoter Mukesh Ambani’s cricket team which plays in the Indian Premier League, refused to comment.
A top BSE source told ET that Marketplace Technologies is owned by a relative of Mr Chauhan. The company’s website does not provide any information about the promoters. The website, however, says the company is run by a team of professionals instrumental in setting up and operating India’s largest stock exchange. Mr Chauhan was indeed part of the core team at the NSE when that bourse was set up in 1994. Others in that team included RH Patil, former NSE chairman, and now chairman of the Clearing Corporation of India, Ravi Narain, the current MD of NSE, and Chitra Ramkrishna, currently deputy MD of NSE.
An official at Marketplace Technologies said the firm is among the leading providers of back-office support solutions and has started providing software for front-end functions just a year ago. It claims to have offered back-office solution to JM Financial, Motilal Oswal and Anand Rathi among others apart from providing front-end trading solutions to brokerages like Networth Stock Broking, Joindre, Systematix Stock Broking, among others.
MUMBAI: The Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) board will meet on Saturday to finalise the acquisition of Marketplace Technologies, a Mumbai-based IT
solutions firm focused on exchange-traded shares, derivatives and commodities markets in India. The objective of the bourse is to develop proprietary technology to enhance BSE’s trading and clearing facilities, and thus, help faster execution of trades and introduction of new products.
According to people familiar with the deal, BSE will pay around Rs 40 crore for buying out the Navi Mumbai-based firm. The board has already given an in-principal approval for the proposed transaction, according to the people.
“No comment,” said a BSE official in response to the detailed questionnaire by ET.
In January last year, the bourse had signed a deal with the Nasdaq OMX group for a new trading and clearing platform in an attempt to overhaul its IT infrastructure. However, the deal was subsequently scrapped in October after differences between the two parties on some technical specifications as well as the timeline for delivery.
Traded turnover in the cash segment of BSE is around one-fourths that on rival National Stock Exchange. In the derivatives segment, NSE clocks around Rs 70,000 crore of turnover daily, while BSE’s derivative segment hardly sees any trades. The BSE top brass feels that overhauling its trading technology will be the first step towards narrowing the market share gap with its arch rival.
It is also learnt that the board will consider appointment of Ashish Kumar Chauhan as the deputy chief executive of the bourse. According to market sources, Mr Chauhan is the brain behind Marketplace Technologies. When contacted by ET, Mr Chauhan, who is currently CIO at Reliance Industries and also the CEO of Mumbai Indians, RIL promoter Mukesh Ambani’s cricket team which plays in the Indian Premier League, refused to comment.
A top BSE source told ET that Marketplace Technologies is owned by a relative of Mr Chauhan. The company’s website does not provide any information about the promoters. The website, however, says the company is run by a team of professionals instrumental in setting up and operating India’s largest stock exchange. Mr Chauhan was indeed part of the core team at the NSE when that bourse was set up in 1994. Others in that team included RH Patil, former NSE chairman, and now chairman of the Clearing Corporation of India, Ravi Narain, the current MD of NSE, and Chitra Ramkrishna, currently deputy MD of NSE.
An official at Marketplace Technologies said the firm is among the leading providers of back-office support solutions and has started providing software for front-end functions just a year ago. It claims to have offered back-office solution to JM Financial, Motilal Oswal and Anand Rathi among others apart from providing front-end trading solutions to brokerages like Networth Stock Broking, Joindre, Systematix Stock Broking, among others.
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