Capital markets tech house First Derivatives has acquired a further 15% interest in Californian analytical database vendor Kx Systems for $7.5 million in a mixture of cash and shares.
First Derivatives - which is the exclusive sales partner for Kx in the US, UK and Ireland - has purchased 215,115 shares from Janet Lustgarten, the co-founder and current CEO of Kx, and from Zurich International. Upon completion, First Derivatives will own 20% of the share capital of Kx.
In January 2009, First Derivatives signed an OEM agreement with Kx Systems to use the kdb+ product set for development of its own Delta suite of algorithmic trading software.
Founded in 1993, Kx products are used worldwide by tier one banks in data and speed-intensive applications such as trade execution, web-based market data services, real-time market and credit risk analysis, and back-testing of trading strategies. Kx generates income from one-off software licence fees and on-going maintenance revenues.
The company is trading profitably, and the acquisition is expected to have a marginally positive impact on First Derivatives earnings in the current year to February 2010.
News of the deal came as First Derivatives posted its results for the first six months to August 09, which showed turnover up 66% to £11.4 million and operating profit of £3 million, up 21.6%.