FYI, neither is anyone else insterested in ASTN (but look at everybody who is involved in Tradepoint):
Tradepoint Leaps as Reuters-Led Group May Buy Stake (Update1)
London, May 7 (Bloomberg) -- Tradepoint Financial Networks
Plc, a U.K. electronic stock-trading system, soared after Reuters
Group Plc's Instinet Corp. and a group of securities firms said
yesterday they plan to buy a majority stake in company.
Tradepoint shares rose 123.5 pence, or 197 percent, to 186.
Trading in the shares had been suspended since April 9, pending
the announcement.
The Reuters-led group said it will buy a 54.4 percent stake
in the company for 14 million pounds (US$22.4 million). The
purchasers are among Wall Street's biggest firms -- Morgan
Stanley Dean Witter & Co., J.P. Morgan & Co., mutual-fund giant
American Century, and electronic stock-trading network
Archipelago LLC., owned in part by Goldman Sachs Group Inc.
''It's a good deal for all shareholders,'' said Ronald
Cohen, chairman of Apax Partners & Co., which owns 17 percent of
Tradepoint. ''The key for all electronic networkers is to achieve
critical mass. With Instinet leading such a powerful consortium,
... the critical mass should be achieved.''
Tradepoint handles 160 million shares a month, compared with
1.1 billion shares daily on the rival London Stock Exchange,
giving it 1 percent of the market. The company, which announced a
pretax loss of 5.64 million pounds for the nine month ending
December 1998, said it would need to boost its market share to 2
percent to break even.
London-based Reuters is trying to develop a global
electronic-trading network. Shares rose 3.5 pence, or 0.4
percent, to 835.5.
Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, provides
customers with access to Tradepoint's system. Bloomberg also
competes with Reuters in providing news, information and trading
systems. |
