About a-team Marketing Services
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry
The knowledge platform for the financial technology industry

A-Team Insight Blogs

Smoke or Fire in Latency M&A?

Subscribe to our newsletter

It’s surprising how market downtime – that is to say the just-passed holiday period – continued to generate tittle-tattle, which of course we were able to monitor from the southern tip of Europe thanks to the modern marvel that is the iPhone.

Tittle-tattle it may be, but something is afoot in the low-latency connectivity space. Here’s the chronology:

Just before we skedaddled out of Heathrow on what might have been the last flight south before the great deluge we ran into an old friend at Royal Exchange. MarketPrizm – the low-latency market connectivity technology supplier formerly known as Chi-X Global Technologies or even Cicada – was close to securing a buyer. That the company has been on the sales block for most of the second half of 2010 was pretty much an open secret, compounded by the departure of Chi-Tech CEO Greg Smith midway through the campaign.

The Royal Exchange’s coffee cups were muttering the name of Colt. We duly – and dutifully – followed up through official channels. No dice. But unofficial ones suggested that two possible investors in MarketPrizm were close to making a move. The idea, these unofficial said, would be to expand the company’s low-latency connectivity capabilities in Asia.

With this we jetted off to our place in the sun, where the iPhone began rattling with new M&A talk. This time it was French low-latency connectivity provider QuantHouse’s turn to play acquiree. The interested party, according to the iPhone? SunGard. Again, we dutifully followed up through official channels. Again, no dice. But unofficial ones did suggest that QuantHouse is in fact in the midst of a funding round aimed at – you guessed it – raising cash to finance an expansion of its operation into Asia.

Fast forward to this morning. Colt announces it is providing a new proximity services capability for clients seeking fast connectivity to London Stock Exchange’s data centre in the City of London. The new capability is offered as a managed service by Colt and allow clients to link to other execution venues linked by Colt’s extensive fibre network.

Nothing untoward in that. But, would Colt welcome help from a connectivity specialist like MarketPrizm, or indeed QuantHouse, which already offers connectivity into LSE’s data centre? Very possibly. Does this explain the wintry gossip? Also very possibly.

We’re waiting for the penny to drop. In the meantime, any suggestions warmly received.

Subscribe to our newsletter

Related content

WEBINAR

Recorded Webinar: Unlocking Competitive Edge with Outsourcing and Managed Services in Trading Technology

Outsourcing has emerged as a strategic solution for capital markets firms as trading technology infrastructures become more complex, data volumes grow exponentially, and regulatory pressures intensify. .By leveraging third-party expertise, firms can optimise operations, reduce costs, and focus on innovation in their trading technology stack. Outsourcing potentially enables firms to scale seamlessly, meet regulatory reporting...

BLOG

A Look Ahead to This Year’s AI in Capital Markets Summit London

On 22 May, the AI in Capital Markets Summit returns to London for its second year, bringing together data, technology, and innovation leaders from across the financial services sector for a full day of discussion around AI strategy, deployment, and governance. Held at the Leonardo Royal Hotel London City, this A-Team Group event will examine...

EVENT

RegTech Summit New York

Now in its 9th year, the RegTech Summit in New York will bring together the RegTech ecosystem to explore how the North American capital markets financial industry can leverage technology to drive innovation, cut costs and support regulatory change.

GUIDE

Entity Data Management Handbook – Fifth Edition

Welcome to the fifth edition of A-Team Group’s Entity Data Management Handbook, sponsored for the fourth year running by entity data specialist Bureau van Dijk, a Moody’s Analytics Company. The past year has seen a crackdown on corporate responsibility for financial crime – with financial firms facing draconian fines for non-compliance and the very real...