Aussie business intelligence firm acquired in $2.5 million deal

Peter Dinham
Thursday, 02 April 2009 10:20

Hologram, an Australian-based business intelligence company, has been acquired by Northern Ireland software and consulting services provider, First Derivatives, in a non-hostile deal worth around $2.5 million.

Announcing the sale of the business today, Hologram principal, Paul Phillips, said the acquisition strengthened First Derivatives’ presence in the Asia Pacific region and would enhance the company’s global service offering.
 
“We are excited about the opportunities that the acquisition by First Derivatives provides for Hologram.
 
“It gives us additional channels to market for our treasury and enterprise risk management systems and allows us to accelerate our plans by leveraging First Derivatives’ global presence and expertise in Kx technology.

“In addition we are looking forward to growing First Derivatives’ sales and consulting presence in the Asia Pacific region and the acquisition will also enable us to expand our European operations in our Treasury Risk Consulting Business,” Phillips said.

Hologram was founded in 2004 by Guy Pitman and John Miller, and Paul Phillips says the company has gained recognition as world-class experts in treasury risk management. Phillips and Rob Hodgkinson joined the company as directors last year.
 
Phillips says First derivatives’ Delta product suite, which is in use in many of the top tier investment banks and hedge funds globally, includes enterprise risk, algorithmic/program trading and data management solutions which deliver true real-time performance.
 
Founded in 1996, First Derivatives currently employs 260 people worldwide and is a specialist provider of consulting services to the capital markets technology sector, with operations in London, New York, Stockholm, Shanghai, Singapore, Toronto and Hong Kong.

First Derivatives' CEO Brian Conlon said today that “the skills of Hologram’s executive team complement those of First Derivatives extremely well and Hologram’s product range will slot seamlessly into our Delta product suite. The Hologram principals have a track record of developing and marketing enterprise software in our domain and this expertise adds to our team of world class technology professionals.
 
“We continue to invest significant resources in research and development and the acquisition will help us expand our range of applications and adds corporate treasuries to our target customer base.”