UPDATE
Nasdaq to buy
Swedish rival
Cinnober in $190
million deal
Nasdaq makes acquisition play for
Swedish technology provider to build out
the technology and analytics capabilities
of its Market Technology business.
N
asdaq has submitted a bid to acquire Swedish
exchange and clearing technology provider Cin-
nober in a deal worth $190 million.
The US exchange group has made an all-cash public
recommended offer to the shareholders of Cinnober
in order to strengthen its Market Technology business,
which serves a range of capital markets participants.
Speaking to The TRADE, Lars Ottersgård, EVP and
head of Market Technology at Nasdaq, explained that
the deal is aimed at building out the historic strengths
of the two businesses.
“We have had good traction for many years for
Market Technology, which has been growing steadily
through the years. We have seen an uptake in interest
in our capabilities to deliver solutions both to the wid-
er capital markets and into new marketplaces,” he said.
“Cinnober has very common capabilities as we do
in many spaces. Our biggest inhibitor for growth has
been the capacity to deliver and support clients, and
together we can grow much faster than as two isolated
entities.”
Cinnober currently provides a portfolio of exchange
and clearing solutions, and recently ventured into
the cryptocurrency space through a partnership with
BitGo, a cryptocurrency security specialist, to provide
technology solutions to crypto exchange operators to
handle increasing trading volumes.
“It’s too early for us to talk about how we would po-
6 // TheTrade // Autumn 2018
“Together we can grow much faster
than as two isolated entities.”
- LARS OTTERSGÅRD
sition the different product lines,” said Ottersgård. “To
some extent there is some overlap of solutions, but in
many areas we have a totally complimentary portfolio
of solutions. We will need evaluate what the best-of-
breeds and decide what is the best way forward.”
Stockholm-based Cinnober was established in 1998
and has diversified its technology offering since its
inception through a number of acquisitions of its own,
including the purchase of market surveillance technol-
ogy provider Ancoa in May last year.
However, the Swedish vendor has struggled finan-
cially in recent years, posting a loss of SEK93 million
in 2017, with a raft of senior executives having depart-
ed, including Veronica Augustsson, who had served at
the helm of Cinnober’s since 2012.
The acquisition bid from Nasdaq comes just one
month after Cinnober announced its CFO and former
RBC Capital Markets analyst Peter K. Lenardos had
been selected as Augustsson’s replacement as Group
CEO.
The deal is expected to close in the fourth quarter
of 2018 and the Cinnober board has unanimously rec-