London-based Knowledge Technology Solutions (KTS) has sold its Market Terminal subscription service to investment software vendor Ionic Information for a minimum consideration of £50,000 in cash.
KTS says further payments will be made dependent on the number of Market Terminal subscribers who sign up to Ionic's Alpha Terminal product.
Iconic is also contributing £10,000 per month to the running costs of Market Terminal until KTS shuts down the service on Friday 29 August 2008.
KTS says it is retaining ownership of the Market Terminal intellectual property (IP), which is currently being used to develop a Web portal that will provide access to prices from the MiFID-compliant Equiduct Trading platform.
KTS says the disposal of the loss-making business will help cut operating costs and enable it to focus on developing the Arcontech CityVision trading and market data software businesses that it acquired last year.
Commenting on the move, Andrew Miller, CEO of KTS, says: "Market Terminal is an excellent product but lacks market penetration. Its high overheads have been a continual drain on finances so we have decided to focus on our solutions business which offers better opportunities to drive the group's growth and profitability."
In December KTS posted a 31% reduction in turnover to £982,000 (2006: £1.4 million) and an operating loss of £1.1 million (2006: £1.0 million) for the year ending 30 June 2007.