Options IT has announced that it has purchased the hosted collocation (hedge fund outsource technology) business from the prime brokerage division of BNP Paribas.
As part of the acquisition, a number of BNP Paribas hedge fund clients will have their technology infrastructure provided through Options ITs Core solution. All clients will continue to be BNP Paribas prime brokerage clients and will remain on their prime brokerage platform. The client transition will be onto Options IT PIPE, which supports the Core solution as well as global market data and high frequency, low-latency trading infrastructure solutions.
As part of the deal, Options IT has also acquired regional data centres in California, Texas and New Jersey. The three data centres complement the firms 12 existing data centres across the US, the UK, Europe and Asia. Options IT has also acquired two regional offices in California and Texas and added IT engineering, management and support staff to its US operations.
Exact terms of the deal were not disclosed.
“We are delighted to have worked closely with BNP Paribas to seamlessly transition their clients collocation technology needs onto Options IT Core and significantly expand our US presence, a key part of our global strategy,” said Nigel Kneafsey, CEO of Options IT. “During the past 18 months, weve seen a tremendous shift among financial markets participants looking to expand the scope of their global business while minimizing their technology and IT maintenance costs. Our Infrastructure-as-a-Service model provides clients with an optimal solution – a robust, flexible and cost certain platform on which to execute their global business strategies.”