UPDATE: NYSE Euronext Agrees To $144 Million Purchase Of Nyfix
28 8월 2009 - 12:40AM
Dow Jones News
NYSE Euronext (NYX) announced it will acquire Nyfix Inc. (NYFX)
for $144 million, broadening the transatlantic exchange operator's
push into the technology underpinning financial markets in the
U.S.
The price tag, which includes preferred stock, bolsters NYSE
Euronext's stable of technology services and provides access to
Nyfix's pre-trade order processing community, covering more than
1,000 sell-side and buy-side participants.
Nyfix shares will be purchased for $1.675 each, a 95% premium to
Wednesday's closing price. The stock, which traded above $45 in
2000 and was down 74% the past year through Wednesday.
NYSE Euronext shares were 1.7% lower at $28.31 in recent trading
Thursday.
Shares of Nyfix shot up 90% to $1.63.
Nyfix, a provider of brokerage services and trade stations,
facilitates pre-trade communication between sell-side brokers and
the pension funds and asset managers they serve.
Plugging into that conversation will expand the potential client
base for NYSE Euronext's stable of market data, trading and
connectivity services, particularly on the buy-side.
The deal comes as the New York-based exchange company constructs
a new trading hub in New Jersey to facilitate high-speed trading.
NYSE Euronext looks to recruit Nyfix customers for the venture,
boosting trade execution times by co-locating clients' trading
systems and algorithms inside the data center.
"This is an extension of NYSE Euronext as a technology company,
and represents our diversification into a broader community than
just trade execution," said Stanley Young, chief executive of NYSE
Technologies and co-chief information officer at NYSE Euronext, who
will oversee the Nyfix unit.
Euronext's core cash equities business, along with that of chief
rival Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. (NDAQ), has come under pressure in the
past 18 months from smaller electronic rivals BATS Exchange and
Direct Edge, which together command a quarter of the U.S.
market.
New York-based Nyfix, founded in 1991, has about 250 full-time
employees. Bob Moitoso, global head of the FIX Division at Nyfix,
will stay on and report to Young; Chief Executive P. Howard
Edelstein will depart upon completion of the transaction, expected
in the fourth quarter.
Nyfix also operates the Millennium dark pool, an alternative
trading system that facilitates anonymous electronic trading of
large stock orders.
NYSE Euronext will look to sell that platform around the close
of the transaction, according to officials.
The acquisition is expected to add to NYSE Euronext's 2010
earnings, excluding one-time costs, with further cost savings and
tax benefits expected.
NYSE Euronext has made a major push on the technology front this
year as it develops new services and updates aging systems.
The company on July 1 announced order-execution times had been
slashed 20-fold at the NYSE with the implementation of the new NYSE
Super Display Book system for processing orders. However, NYSE
Euronext is still seen lagging rival exchanges with faster
systems.
Ever-faster order execution is a key factor for many traders,
especially as automated trading grabs an increasing amount of
overall trading volume.
-By Kevin Kingsbury, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2354;
kevin.kingsbury@dowjones.com; and Jacob Bunge, Dow Jones Newswires;
(312) 750-4117; jacob.bunge@dowjones.com