Bank backed equity research portal TheMarkets.com has begun full-scale operations, providing insitutional investors with direct, customisable access to research and analysis, new-issue information and member firms' Web content.
The capital markets portal is owned by Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Bank, The Goldman Sachs Group, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney, JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and UBS Warburg. Multex.com is the application service provider (ASP) for the site, providing the technological infrastructure and Web hosting services.
TheMarkets.com starts full-scale operations with multiple users at 150 of the largest investment management firms, many of whom have been testing the service over the last several months.
The service offers single sign-on access to the research on nearly 12,000 equities followed by over 4,000 analysts at the nine member firms. It will compete directly with First Call, a Thomson Financial venture for aggregating third party research content.
John Faig, equity analyst, of American Express Financial Advisors, notes: "The direct access to member firm Web sites makes it much easier to perform research."
Other features of the site include a US new-issue calendar continuously updated by member firms; analyst earnings models; global news and market data from Reuters; customisable email alerts to notify users of breaking news and new research; and a tagging system allowing users to filter research through five research 'tags' - overview, models, reports, initiations, and notes.
According to a recent Greenwich Associates study, 82% of equity portfolio managers surveyed believe that too much time is spent combing through multiple Web sites looking for meaningful research.
Lode Devlaminck, head of European research, of Fortis Asset Management, agrees. "TheMarkets.com provides institutional investors with the ability to cut through the clutter," he says, "and focus on the most important research, including analyst earnings models."
TheMarkets.com has also announced three new additions to the management team. Alina Sullivan joins as vice president of sales and client relations. She previously spent 14 years with Thomson Financial's First Call, where she most recently held the title of vice president, regional sales manager.
Stacee Green has been named vice president of finance. She was previously vice president of finance for Thomson's investment banking and capital markets group.
Patrick Francis has been appointed vice president of technology. Prior to joining TheMarkets.com, he spent ten years with Hyperion Solutions as the senior director of software components and infrastructure.