Archipelago Announces Investment by Merrill Lynch
CHICAGO, Sept. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Archipelago, a leading U.S.-based electronic communications network (ECN) for trading stocks, today announced that Merrill Lynch (NYSE: MER - news), one of the world's leading equity trading and underwriting firms, will acquire an approximately 14.3 percent equity stake in Archipelago. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Merrill Lynch joins a renowned group of investors in Archipelago, each of which owns an equal equity stake. Other investors include E*TRADE Group Inc., Goldman Sachs Group Inc., J.P. Morgan, American Century Companies, and Instinet, a wholly owned subsidiary of Reuters Group PLC.
``The addition of Merrill Lynch to our investment group is another important step in Archipelago's business development,' said Gerald D. Putnam, chief executive officer of Archipelago. ``Merrill Lynch, one of the world's largest securities firms, builds on our already strong institutional and retail presence and helps us address the needs of institutions and individuals alike for fast, fair execution of trades.'
Thomas Joyce, managing director and head of Equity Market Structures for Merrill Lynch, said: ``As a leader in the global equities business, Merrill Lynch is committed to enabling our clients to take full advantage of the innovations occurring in the marketplace. Our investment in Archipelago, whose technology and open architecture are helping to define the future of trade execution, provides us with one more way to give our clients an edge.'
Archipelago, initially formed as a joint venture with software developer, Townsend Analytics, is one of the original four ECNs approved in January 1997 by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Since its inception, Archipelago has offered subscribers outbound order preferencing to effectively create a national limit order book for Nasdaq stocks. Its leading-edge technology, open architecture and innovations, such as sweep functionality based on a proprietary algorithm, facilitate the best execution for investors. Archipelago is also the only ECN with major investors in both the institutional and retail financial services sectors. The Archipelago trading system provides investors fast, cost-efficient and anonymous access to the market. Its average daily volume has more than doubled since December. On August 9, 1999, Archipelago filed with the SEC to become a national securities exchange.
Merrill Lynch is one of the world's leading financial management and advisory companies with offices in 43 countries and total client assets exceeding $1.5 trillion. As an investment bank, it is the top global underwriter and market maker of debt and equity securities and a leading strategic advisor to corporations, governments, institutions, and individuals worldwide. Through Merrill Lynch Asset Management and Merrill Lynch Mercury Asset Management the company is one of the world's largest managers of financial assets.
CONTACT: Mary Lyn Kurish, 312-960-0725 or Sydnie Kampschroeder, 312-960-1358, both of Archipelago; Michelle Nolan of Hill & Knowlton, 312-255-3040, for Archipelago; or Jonathan Humphreys of Merrill Lynch, 212-449-2107; Patrick Di Chiro of E*TRADE, 650-331-5331; Chris Molanphy of J.P. Morgan, 212-648-8213; Chris Doyle, American Century, 816-340-4638; or Terrence Mulry 212-310-9554 or Lorrie Harte Benwell, both of Instinet, 0171-680-3008.
SOURCE: Archipelago
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