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Options IT Acquires Colo Biz from BNP Paribas

Options IT Acquires Colo Biz from BNP Paribas

Options IT, a global provider of high-performance technology infrastructure to hedge funds and brokerages and pioneer of the Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) technology management model, today announced it has purchased the hosted colocation (hedge fund outsource technology) business from the prime brokerage division of BNP Paribas.

As part of the acquisition, a number of BNP Paribas hedge fund clients will have their technology infrastructure provided through Options IT’s Core solution. Options IT Core provides a fully hosted global business technology infrastructure, eliminating the cost associated with building and maintaining essential business technology internally. All clients will continue to be BNP Paribas prime brokerage clients and will remain on their prime brokerage platform. The client transition will be a seamless integration onto Options IT PIPEâ, which supports the Core solution as well as a full suite of global market data and high-frequency, low-latency trading infrastructure solutions.

As part of the deal, Options IT has also acquired regional data centers in California, Texas and New Jersey. The three data centers complement the firm’s 12 existing data centers across the US, the UK, Europe and Asia. Options IT has also acquired two regional offices in California and Texas and added IT engineering, management and support staff to its US operations.

Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition by Options IT comes as financial markets participants are increasingly scrutinizing the costs and resources associated with managing trading technology in-house. Options IT’s IaaS business model provides those firms with a fully hosted, Tier-One strength global trading infrastructure and IT management team, enabling clients to focus exclusively on increasingly complex investment and execution strategies.

“We are delighted to have worked closely with BNP Paribas to seamlessly transition their clients’ colocation technology needs onto Options IT Core and significantly expand our US presence, a key part of our global strategy,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT, in a company release. “During the past 18 months, we’ve seen a tremendous shift among financial markets participants looking to expand the scope of their global business while minimizing their technology and IT maintenance costs. Our Infrastructure-as-a-Service model provides clients with an optimal solution – a robust, flexible and cost certain platform on which to execute their global business strategies.”

Options IT’s IaaS offerings – Core, Expand, Velocity and Accelerate – are provided individually or as a bundled service under the Options PIPEâ product suite. The product offerings range from infrastructure and technology management for essential business operations to low-latency global connectivity and market data feeds for high-frequency hedge funds and proprietary trading shops.

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