00:00 AM
In Brief
Reuters, the global news and market data company, has acquired an 84% stake in TowerGroup, a consulting group that focuses on financial technologies. Reuters plans to make further acquisitions and investments in targeted vertical research sectors in the U.S., Europe and Asica to develop a global research and advisory business. TowerGroup will operate as an entity within Reuters Ventures, a division recently established to exploit new business opportunities. According to Reuters, TowerGroup will continue to maintain complete editorial independence and objectivity. TowerGroup employees will continue to own the remaining 16% of the share capital.
Knight/Trimark Group has acquired options market maker and asset management firm Arbitrade Holdings in an effort to expand into the options market. The new options market-making business will be called Knight Financial Products and will be headed by Arbitrade's CEO, Peter Hajas. The deal, which is expected to close in the first quarter of 2000, will also leverage Arbitrade's asset management business, which has $350 million under management.
Instinet, the electronic brokerage subsidiary of Reuters, has agreed to purchase Lynch Jones & Ryan, a provider of commission recapture programs for pension plan sponsors. Lynch Jones & Ryan will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary of Instinet Corp with its executive team continuing to run daily operations. Once the deal has closed, Instinet will acquire the stock of Lynch Jones & Ryan, Patriot Financial Planning Inc. and a portion of LJR's NYSE floor broker unit, which will become a separate entity. Instinet plans to expand its services in the plan sponsor community through the LJR acquisition.
Tibco Finance Technology and Javelin Technologies have built an integrated platform for FIX messaging and customer workflow. Javelin's Coppelia FIX messaging solution and Tibco's TIB/Rendezvous messaging middleware have been combined to provide an integrated product for transactions processing and content distribution via standard message formats. The solution will facilitate straight-through-processing through the integration of applications such as order routing and portfolio management with Tibco's TIB/Active Enterprise, which connects applications, Web sites, databases and other content sources.