Thomson Financial has bought out its brokerage partners and acquired full ownership of broker research outfit First Call.
Thomson has purchased the outstanding 48% of shares in First Call it didn't already own from its eight brokerage partners, including: Credit Suisse First Boston, Salomon Smith Barney, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank Securities, Merrill Lynch, UBS PaineWebber, Lehman Brothers, and Prudential. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Thomson says First Call will continue to receive reports and related data from the previous owners.
"This transaction makes sense for everyone involved," notes Tom Trivella from Credit Suisse First Boston. "We look forward to continuing our relationship with Thomson and First Call as a contributor of content, as a customer and a business partner."
Patrick Tierney, president and chief executive officer of Thomson Financial says the new ownership structure will enable the complete integration of First Call with other Thomson Financial products.
He says the acquisition is part of an extensive business and product development program underway in the broker/fund management group. New products and services to be released this summer include Thomson Financial Active Express (v. 3.5) and Target Web.
Active Express brings together best-of-breed content on a single platform and incorporates analytical tools that help money managers make investment decisions. Content is aggregated from First Call, I/B/E/S, Worldscope and Portia as well as third party sources.
Target Web is pitched at the buy side and is designed to help brokers more accurately target the distribution of their research to the worldwide money management community.