New York-based brokerage Fahnestock has renewed its contract with Reuters for 1250 retail equity desktops and added 1000 new positions at its recently-acquired Oppenheimer division, displacing an installed base of Thomson Financial ILX workstations.
The contract is being touted by Reuters as evidence of its ability to retain, and win back, market share in the competitive North American retail market at the expense of rival Thomson. The loss of Oppenheim, acquired by Fahnestock last month from Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, will be particularly galling to the number three dealing room data vendor as it occurred on Thomson's home territory in Canada.
Under the four-year deal, Fahnestock is expected to take a total of 2250 positions displaying Reuters Plus, the US equity workstation. The service will support financial professionals working within Fahnestock’s private banking operations throughout the US as well as Canada and South America.
Bob Neuhoff, executive vice president, Fahnestock & Co. Inc., implies that Reuters offered a competitive price for the business. He says: "With the acquisition of the Oppenheimer & Co. Division, we sought a cost-effective solution to satisfy our expanded needs; Reuters delivered."
A roll out of the service will begin shortly and is slated for completion in Q2 2003.