Ipreo in the News
21 Feb 08
Ipreo buys CapitalBridge
Market intelligence firms join to challenge dominant Thomson
Ipreo, the private equity-backed market intelligence player behind Bigdough, today announced it is acquiring CapitalBridge, a competitor, for $31.5 mn.
The deal vaults Ipreo into a strong number two position behind Thomson Financial in the market for IR data, which, until now, has accounted for a small part of the firm's $100 mn a year in revenue.
"Two really strong brands are coming together to leverage off our experience, data quality, software and customer services to build a strong franchise with a global reach," says Kevin Marcus, Ipreo's president and COO.
Chris Taylor, managing director of CapitalBridge, who will now report to Marcus as head of the company's global corporate business, says nothing will change for clients. While the CapitalBridge name will be phased out, the same people will be handling the same accounts from existing offices in London, Paris, Tokyo, Vienna and Cape Town, he says. In the US, Ipreo will now span both its Manhattan offices and CapitalBridge's Hoboken headquarters.
Marcus adds that the two firms' data are also complementary, with CapitalBridge filling some Bigdough gaps: "CapitalBridge has done a really good job collecting European hedge fund data and Japanese buy-side data, to name two examples."
CapitalBridge, formerly known as Citigate Financial Intelligence and Citigate Dewe Rogerson, was rolled together under advertising and media giant Incepta in 1998. In 2005 Huntsworth bought Incepta in a reverse takeover and the US market intelligence unit changed its name to CapitalBridge. Huntsworth still owns the Global Consulting Group, which was Thomson Financial's old IR consulting unit.
Ipreo was formed in December 2006 from the merger of i-Deal and Hemscott, the UK-based parent of Bigdough, with backing from private equity firm Veronis Suhler Stevenson. Ipreo's CEO, Scott Ganeles, had been co-founder and president of the Carson Group, a stock surveillance firm acquired by Thomson Financial in 2000. Marcus, who was also at Carson, worked for three years as president of Thomson's corporate group before joining Ganeles at i-Deal.
Industry veterans are used to such convoluted pedigrees. Even Ganeles, though, was surprised to run into Frank Testa, a vice president on CapitalBridge's surveillance team. As his 'cube-mate' in 1988 at the Carter Organization, Testa taught Ganeles his first lessons in the business of market intelligence.
Neil Stewart
