Datalink Releases Wireless Application for Market Data Aggregation
By Anthony Guerra, Wall Street & Technology Online
Aug 4, 2000 (8:38 AM)
Datalink.net, a wireless application service provider, has released its newGlobal Market Pro product, which aggregates news, market data and other types of information
in a customized format for traders, and delivers it to their wireless devices.
The product was developed in conjunction with Chase Manhattan Bank, which contributed to the design and development phase of the device, which will be used by its
foreign exchange (FX) traders. Chase last week gave up any and all copyright, patent and trade secret claims to Global Market Pro in exchange for warrants to
purchase up to 800,000 shares of Datalink.net stock at a price of $30 per common share. Currently, the price of the stock is around $18.
Datalink.net CEO and Chairman Anthony LaPine says of the deal, "It was very positive all the way around, because we received all the intellectual property and they
waived any royalty rights. This was done when the stock price was $13 or $14 a share, so the option to buy a stock that's 200 percent of the current market is not worth
a lot of money."
LaPine, however, is hoping that Global Market Pro will bring in a lot of money and feels the service will expand beyond FX to eventually be used by traders of other
securities. He estimates the number of potential users at Chase to be around 1,000 and places the national market at 100,000. He also says the service will cost
Chase---the first client to sign on for Global Market Pro---from $150 to $300 per user, per month depending on the specific services selected.
The Global Market Pro product is a tool through which traders can streamline information that goes to their wireless devices. Limited by their size, such devices cannot
hold anywhere near the amount or type of information that an average PC can. "Datalink's vision is the integration of the handheld and the desktop," says LaPine, "not
the replacement of the desktop. That can't be done with today's technology."
Global Market Pro is a browser-based filter that traders can download onto their desktop---which is in communication with the Datalink.net server in Vancouver---by
which Datalink.net learns which feeds to send its WAP device. Datalink has access to more than 400 different types of feeds, of which Chase chose 13 for its needs.
LaPine says the three main feeds of those 13 are Reuters, GovPX and Market News.
LaPine says Datalink replaced the account at Chase that had been held by Aether Systems. According to LaPine, Aether was providing Chase with an "FX alert
product that was seven years old---it was obsolete but the only thing out there." A spokesperson for Aether responds, "Datalink might have one portion of the business at
Chase, but they are still our clients."
LaPine adds that Global Market Pro is not intended for retail consumers. "If you aren't a sophisticated trader, you wouldn't even know what you're doing," he says. "You
don't need it, you don't want it, and if you got it explained to you, you'd get a headache."
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