The move is part of Citigroup’s attempt to diversify its own automated trading platform through the acquisition of trading technologies and a much broader customer base including retail investors and broker-dealers.
ATD will be folded into Citigroup’s global equities business unit and remain headquartered in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina.
The company specializes in the development of automated and customized trading and equity execution systems used mainly by broker-dealer subsidiaries
New York-based Citigroup will fork out $103m in cash with the remainder in stock. The deal is expected to close in the third-quarter.
Citigroup also gets 120 customers, mostly brokers, dealers, and around 200m shares daily, which roughly equates to around 6% of NYSE’s volume in 2006 and all of NASDAQ’s volume.
Citigroup is also eyeing an expansion into Europe after acquiring a stake in Nikko Cordial in April for $7.7bn.
Citicorp has executed a series of acquisitions over the past four years to beef up its presence in the equity trading market. Others include Lava Trading, Knight Capital Group’s options market making business, TD Waterhouse Capital Markets, and OnTrade ECN.
