NASDAQ snaffles Australian SMARTS

Beverley Head
Tuesday, 27 July 2010 19:49

IT Industry - Deals

Australian software house the SMARTS Group - acknowledged as a world leading supplier of financial market surveillance systems - has been snaffled by NASDAQ OMX, the world's largest financial exchange company.

Until now the privately held Sydney based company has been owned by the three founders of the organisation, the Capital Markets CRC and a group of employees. Financial details have not been revealed, nor whether the takeover involves a mix of cash and shares, only that the deal is expected to be finalised during the third quarter.

In March SMARTS secured one of its biggest local coups, worth $4 million, when it announced that it would provide Australian regulator the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) with a system to monitor local financial markets, as it takes over what was previously an ASX role. Dr Andreas Furche, ceo of SMARTS said this evening that throughout the takeover negotiations ASIC had been kept informed of the company's discussions with NASDAQ OMX.

The SMARTS Integrity Platform which was selected by ASIC is used by around 30 national exchanges or regulators around the world including the London Stock Exchange which uses the platform to monitor Baikal, its pan-European non display trading market, a so called dark-pool trading environment.  It is also used by market regulators in Hong Kong and Singapore.

According to Furche the takeover by NASDAQ OMX will open the doors to substantially more international opportunities for SMARTS.

SMARTS plans to keep its approximately 90 strong development team located in Sydney. 'This will lead to a hell of a lot more work and growth,' said Furche, who told iTWIre he expects to remain as the ceo of the SMARTS unit of NASDAQ OMX's Market Technology business following the takeover.

Asked about the implications for the local IT market of the loss of yet another home grown software success story to a US giant, Furche said: 'Financial markets are global markets. The ownership issue is emotional, but this lets us grow faster.'