Financial information services company Markit has agreed to acquire enterprise data management (EDM) solutions supplier Cadis for an undisclosed sum, confirming a rumour that has dominated the London reference data circuit for the past week or so. The deal is the latest in a series of Markit acquisitions that includes LogicScope, QuIC, Data Explorers, QSG and Wall Street on Demand.
Markit intends to operate Cadis as a business unit alongside its other enterprise solutions, including Markit Analytics, Markit Portfolio Management and Markit on Demand, and has named former Cadis CEO Daniel Simpson as a member of its executive management team.
Commenting on the acquisition, Markit CEO Lance Uggla says: “Data management is top of just about every financial institution’s agenda, the scale and complexity of the data being managed has never been greater. Following this acquisition, we will be able to provide our customers with Cadis’ market-leading data management solution. The EDM space is large, global and growing and Cadis fits well with Markit’s entrepreneurial growth-oriented culture.”
Simpson adds: “By combining our expertise with Markit’s distribution and customer network, we will be able to help more firms meet increased regulatory pressures and risk management demands.”
The acquisition brings Markit into new territory. Cadis is a significant catch at a time when EDM is a critical issue for capital markets companies struggling with risk management and increasing regulation, while facing the big data management conundrum.
Cadis targets only buy side firms with Cadis EDM, but promises swift implementation compared to its competitors and pursues smart technologies. The company’s enterprise solution is based on service-oriented architecture while it made its first foray into the cloud with a software-as-a-service delivery option for data management last year. It also has partners in the right places and plug-in deals with many of the vendors that are used by the buy side, including Markit.
Equally important to Markit must be Cadis’ client base of over 60 big name customers, including Shell, Perpetual Investments, Aviva Investors and, most recently, Federated Investors and Northern Trust.
In terms of size, Cadis has a team of towards 200 staff, while Markit has over 2,300 employees. Markit’s global reach also exceeds Cadis’ London headquarters and bases in New York, Boston, Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Paris and Luxembourg, but these anomalies are unlikely to cause difficulties of integration experienced in some acquisitions as Markit, for the time being at least, looks set to make the most of Cadis and its EDM platform on a standalone basis while identifying opportunities for cross-selling.
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