In a move to establish a new platform to communicate proprietary equity information, seven of the world's largest investment banks - Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Salomon Smith Barney, Credit Suisse First Boston, Deutsche Banc Alex Brown, and UBS Warburg - have announced an agreement to create "TheMarkets.com," a portal for institutional investors that offers commingled equity research, new issue information, news, and market data.
Scheduled to launch in the fourth quarter of 2000, Multex.com has been selected to be the Application Service Provider (ASP) for the proposed site, providing the technological infrastructure and Web hosting services. Relationships may be established with other technology firms, the partners say.
Summary views of proprietary content will be provided on a company-by-company basis, including recommendations, price targets, actual and forecasted earnings estimates, and other key valuation metrics. Market news and data will be linked to other services, so that TheMarkets.com provides trading and news histories when research has been published. Proprietary research will be augmented with multimedia presentations to enhance content.
"The firms developed TheMarkets.com to meet our institutional clients' needs and desires for easy access to key research and market information on a real-time basis," says Steven Mnuchin, global head of e-commerce and co-head of technology operating committee, Goldman Sachs.
TheMarkets.com will be structured as a Limited Liability Company. A client advisory board is in the process of being formed, and a search for a chief executive officer is underway.