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deal along.
After Fidessa accepted the initial £1.4 billion
offer from Temenos, with a shareholder meet-
ing planned to agree with the terms of the
deal, the company announced - without the
consent of those involved - that ION Invest-
ment Group and SS&C Technologies had also
approached the firm with higher offers.
Following weeks of uncertainty, competition
and regulatory probes, Fidessa finally accept-
ed a £1.5 billion offer from ION Investment
Group that was 8.5% higher than Temenos’
original offer. Somewhat understandably,
Temenos decided against raising its offer for
the trading technology vendor and terminated
its cooperation agreement.
It’s a compelling union, with Fidessa having
long-established itself in the equities and
derivatives trading world partnered with
ION’s fixed income and foreign exchange
(FX) focus. However, there may yet be a sting
in the tail for Fidessa, as the UK Competition
and Markets Authority announced an inquiry
into the acquisition in mid-June, which at the
time of writing, could either come to nothing
or delay what has already been a roller coaster
ride even further.
Most eye-watering
fee: Stat e Street &
Charles River
One of the more recent acquisitions this year
was State Street’s decision to buy Charles
River Development for an eye-watering $2.6
billion. It’s a deal that industry pundits agree
makes sense, despite the whopping price tag,
with Charles River’s flagship Investment
Management System (IMS) boasting a client
base of 50 of the top 100 asset managers,
accounting for more than $25 trillion in
assets under management. The Boston-based
custodian bank has been at the forefront of the
recently-established trend for back and mid-
dle-office providers looking to bolster their
front officer activities.
However, investors were spooked by the
significant fee shelled out for Charles River
as headlines began to flood social media and
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news outlets. With the order management
system (OMS) specialist posting around $300
million in revenues last year, it quickly became
clear that State Street is set to cough up nine
times that amount to secure the deal.
State Street saw its market capitalisation
plummet $2.9 billion the day the deal was
announced, the exact amount State Street
offered for Charles River. The bank’s market
capitalisation fell approximately 7% and the
custodian saw its biggest drop in value over
the course of a single day for more than two
years. But, as custody banks do battle on new
fronts and calls for lower fees from their
clients rattle on, State Street could find itself
ahead of the curve when Charles River, which
will act as a stand-alone business, settles down
into its new stable and optimisation of its
offering begins in earnest.
Biggest data deal:
IHS Markit & Ipreo
News of data and analytics services giant IHS
Markit acquiring rival Ipreo certainly proved
to be a topic of interest amongst readers of
THE TRADE when the deal was announced
back in May. IHS Markit agreed a deal to buy
the firm for $1.9 billion from private equity
funds managed by Blackstone and Goldman
Sachs Merchant Banking Division, which in
turn acquired Ipreo in 2014 for $975 million.
Since Goldman and Blackstone invested in
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