FactSet Research Systems Will Acquire StreamVPN, and more

FactSet Research Systems Will Acquire StreamVPN

FactSet Research Systems has agreed to acquire StreamVPN Limited, a London-based provider of tools to maximize the value of equity research, for approximately $22.8 million (13 million pounds), the company announced today.

With additional offices in New York and Hong Kong, StreamVPN offers equity management clients and brokerage houses worldwide a platform called Alpha Network, with tools to filter, track and evaluate so-called high conviction investment ideas. Leading buy-side and sell-side firms throughout Europe, Asia and the United States currently use AlphaNetwork.

FactSet says it intends for StreamVPN's products to constitute a new Alpha Metrics business unit within its global investment management group. The Alpha Metrics unit will provide StreamVPN's existing products to buy- and sell-side clients and develop new products targeted at the buy/sell-side relationship.

Based in Norwalk, Conn., FactSet is a leading supplier of computer-based financial and economic data to the investment community.

Bloomberg PhatPipe Makes Its Debut on Market Data Platforms and Data-Feed Handlers

Bloomberg is unveiling Bloomberg PhatPipe, its new real-time, high-volume market data feed, and allowing the first group of platforms and data feed handlers to integrate the long-awaited feed, the global information provider announced on Monday. The initial group consists of Dealing Object Technology (DOT), HyperFeed Technologies, I-Deal Data Systems, Infodyne, TS-Associates and Wombat Financial Software.

Bloomberg says it's introducing a dramatic change to the market data industry in making PhatPipe compatible with all independent data feed handlers and market data platforms.

In the past, Bloomberg customers mainly had to use its data within the confines of the closed Bloomberg architecture.

With Bloomberg PhatPipe's new open architecture, customers who use market data feeds will now have more independence and choice obtaining market data and customizing it for their needs, the release said.

Bloomberg PhatPipe includes exchange-oriented data as well as Bloomberg proprietary and contributor data currently offered to Bloomberg Professional service customers. "This unique tool is the option for customers who demand the depth and breadth of Bloomberg's real-time data for their proprietary and in-house applications," stated Tricia San Cristobal, a Bloomberg official in the release.

Additional feed handlers and platform companies offering Bloomberg PhatPipe will be revealed in the upcoming months, says the company.

FIX Protocol Ltd. Forms Global Foreign Exchange Committee and Merges With TWIST

FIX Protocol Ltd. (FPL) has elevated the status of the Foreign Exchange Working Group (FXWG) to Global Foreign Exchange Committee (GFXC), the standards organization announced on Monday.

The new GFXC will support the recently announced collaborative initiative among FPL, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) and TWIST Process Innovations, focusing on standardizing foreign exchange trading requirements in an industry-led, open, and vendor-neutral manner. In this new joint effort, FPL, ISDA and TWIST will work together and provide resources to undertake a product coverage and business process gap analysis with regard to the FX coverage in their respective standards - Financial Information Exchange (FIX), FpML and TWIST.

At the same time, the FX working group of TWIST Process Innovations is merging with the GFXC of FPL -- the nonprofit organization that owns the intellectual property rights to the FIX protocol. The two new cochairs of the GFXC are Bill Specht, who is the financial software architect at Currenex; and Steve Donovan, chief information officer for MFS Investments. Donovan has served as cochair of the FPL working group since inception. Specht was the primary author of the TWIST specification covering FX transactions.

The FIX F/X Working Group was created in December of 2003 in response to interest from firms who were implementing or considering implementing the FIX Protocol to support FX trading. Four distinct subgroups were established -- Non Deliverable Forwards, Swaps, Streaming Prices and General Order Flow -- to assist in the first phase of creating plain English documentation to describe business flows and requirements.

Lava Trading Provides Access to Pipeline for Block Trading

Customers of Lava Trading now will be able to enter orders for large blocks of stock into Pipeline Trading's Alternative Trading System, according to an announcement by both companies.

Pipeline offers a continuous, electronic market where block traders can enter priced orders for large blocks of stock without fear of predatory practices that occur in traditional trading venues, said the release.

Lava customers can access Pipeline through Lava Trading Floor, Lava's front-end workstation; Lava blotter; or ColorPalette, Lava's sell-side trading and order management system.

"Trading large blocks while minimizing market impact is very attractive to our clients, many of whom have expressed interest in routing to Pipeline. Providing access to this leading block-trading technology is in keeping with our commitment to provide a full spectrum of value-added trading solutions to our customers," stated Richard Korhammer, CEO, Lava Trading.