In what was probably a done deal much before the news about Cognotec going into a receivership were even announced First Derivatives has completed the acquisition of the troubled company.
Ireland based First Derivatives has paid just $4.7 million for Cognotec , a fraction of $100 million in investments which Cognotec received in the past 20 years. Talking about bargains. I assume First Derivatives will also have to pay off the loans to Barclays and others so the price will eventually go up, but the repayment will probably be delayed by a few years as accustomed in such cases.
'Cognotech's flagship products are complementary to the products in the First Derivatives Delta suite and share a common technology base,' commented CEO Brian Conlon. 'This investment further reinforces our position as one of the world's foremost providers of solutions in the market data and electronic trading arena,' he added.
Having Cognotec saved is great news on one hand, as the more large technological/Liquidity aggregation companies the better, yet one has to wonder how come this deal happened so fast and without any other parties interested, I mean Cognotec's technology should be superior to many others so it baffles me how this exclusivity was immediately granted to just one company on the same day the receivership was announced.
