September 2003
royalblue announces additional $24 million Fidessa
contract with Merrill Lynch
royalblue announces
that it has extended its agreement with Merrill
Lynch, allowing royalblue’s
Fidessa product suite to be used
by Merrill Lynch to support its core US domestic
trading activities.
Merrill Lynch already uses the Fidessa
product suite for trading equities in Europe,
Asia and the US and the deal provides support
for market making in NASDAQ listed securities.
Under the deal Merrill Lynch will also extend
their commitment to the existing Fidessa
platform for a further 3 years. The new deal is
expected to be worth at least $24m over the next
3 years, of which $9.5m reflects the investment
in the new US domestic system.
This deal represents the culmination of discussions
started in 2001 when Merrill Lynch and royalblue
agreed to work closely to explore the possibility
of using royalblue’s Fidessa
product to provide software to support Merrill
Lynch’s US market making requirements.
At that time, in recognition of the strategic
value of the opportunity, royalblue
agreed to grant Merrill Lynch certain options
over ordinary shares in royalblue
conditional upon an agreement being concluded.
These options have lapsed.
Due to the continued strategic importance of the
deal royalblue will grant Merrill
Lynch three year options exercisable immediately
with an exercise price of 550p for 600,000 ordinary
shares.
