Connecticut-based FactSet Research Systems, a supplier of financial data to investment companies, has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all the outstanding capital stock of StreamVPN, a UK provider of secure network services to brokerage firms.
Under the deal FactSet will pay a consideration of £13 million subject to adjustment based on levels of working capital. In addition, contingent consideration will be payable if certain subscription targets are met during a twelve-month period following the closing of the transaction.
Founded in February 2000 by former Morgan Stanley executives Simon Merchant and Erik Wästlund, StreamVPN is based in London and has offices in New York and Hong Kong.
The company's flagship product, Alpha Network, is designed to improve the communication between institutional money managers and the brokerage community by providing a platform to filter, track and evaluate investment ideas.
FactSet says it will establish a new alpha metrics unit within its global investment management group to house the StreamVPN business. The unit will provide StreamVPN's existing products to buy-side and sell-side clients, and pursue the development of new products targeted at the buy-side/sell-side relationship.
Michael Frankenfield, SVP and director of sales, FactSet, comments: "The acquisition of StreamVPN will provide our institutional clients with a suite of sophisticated and innovative tools for capturing and measuring Alpha-generating ideas provided by the sell-side, as well as those ideas generated internally by their own research staff."