Renaissance Trading Technologies, a New York-based firm founded by former partners from investment bank Robertson Stephens, has acquired the intellectual property rights to Robertson's Nasdaq trading and order management system, and sold an 18% minority stake in the firm to Nyfix.
The workstation, which was launched at Robertson earlier this year, enables traders to electronically receive orders from multiple sources, execute orders according to best execution principles, route orders to ECN or ATS destinations and manage risk.
Ken DeGiglio, executive vice president and CTO, Renaissance, says: "The Renaissance Trading system was designed by traders, for traders and provides the ultimate solution for scalability, reliability, and performance."
Nyfix will re-brand the system as Nyfix Platinum and re-package it with its existing offerings in the Listed market, providing its clients with an integrated trading platform.
Peter Kilbinger Hansen, chairman and CEO, Nyfix, adds:"We have had plans to introduce our industry-leading technology and services into the Nasdaq market and found that aligning ourselves with Renaissance is the quickest and most cost-efficient way to do that."
The companies expect the first client to be live on the system during the first quarter of 2003.
Under the agreement, Nyfix will have an option to purchase a majority interest in Renaissance at a later date.
While reporting a consolidated loss last quarter as a result of funding several new efforts, Hansen insists that its core business has continued to be profitable and all of its other new businesses have gained traction during the 3rd quarter. He says the company is entering the 4th quarter with a significant backlog and a number of signed deals.
"We have plenty of cash and cash equivalents on hand and are very comfortable with this investment," says Hansen.