Citigroup is in advanced discussions to buy South Carolina-based algorithmic trading firm Automated Trading Desk (ATD) for around $700 million, according to a Wall Street Journal report.
The purchase could be announced this week, though details of the deal could still change, says the WSJ report, which cites people familiar with the matter.
ATD was established in 1988 by computer programmers Steve Swanson and Jonathan Butler along with David Whitcomb who was a finance professor at Rutgers University.
From its headquarters in South Carolina, the company uses its proprietary agorithmic trading technology to buy and sell stock for itself and on behalf of clients. ATD handled around six per cent of the trading volume on the major US stock markets last year, says WSJ, and sometimes accounted for 200 million of shares traded per day.
Earlier this year Technology Crossover Ventures (TCV) invested $60 million in the vendor. ATD said the funds would be used to expand its retail, options and institutional execution businesses.
If completed the ATD purchase would signal a further move by Citigroup to grow its market share in trading US stocks and use computerised trading technology to improve its efforts to trade stocks overseas, says the report.