Merger...
biz.yahoo.com
Monday November 15, 2:30 am Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: Data Broadcasting Corporation
Data Broadcasting to Merge with Financial Times group's Asset Management Business in More Than $800 Million Transaction
CBS.MarketWatch.com and FT.com to Form International and Domestic Marketing Alliance
Merger will Create Major Worldwide Provider of Financial Information
LONDON and JACKSON, Wyo., Nov. 15 /PRNewswire/ -- Data Broadcasting Corporation (Nasdaq: DBCC - news), America's leading provider of real-time financial market data to traders and individual investors, today announced an agreement to merge with the specialist asset valuation business (FTAM) of the Financial Times group, part of Pearson plc, the international media company.
The Financial Times group will transfer ownership of FTAM to Data
Broadcasting in exchange for a 60% stake in the combined business,
which is expected to have pro forma revenues in 1999 of approximately
$320 million, almost three times the fiscal 1999 revenues of Data
Broadcasting. The value of the shares to be exchanged is more than
$800 million based on Data Broadcasting's closing price on Friday,
November 12, 1999 ($14-3/8).
FTAM is the leading provider of specialist pricing, dividend,
corporate action and asset management information to major
institutional investors around the world, and its data bases are used
to value many of the world's leading investment funds. Data
Broadcasting specializes in meeting the needs of individual investors
and professional traders by providing news, real-time streaming quote
services, analytical tools and investment models.
The expanded business will be better positioned to provide more
comprehensive service to every sector of the global money management
community and develop more rapidly a wider range of Internet-
delivered products. The new business will also be able to achieve
significant integration benefits in data collection and technology
infrastructure.
DBC owns approximately 32% of MarketWatch.com (Nasdaq: MKTW - news),
which operates CBS.MarketWatch.com, one of the leading financial
information Web sites in the United States. Through its shareholding
in Data Broadcasting, the Financial Times group will form a marketing
alliance with MarketWatch.com to cross-promote CBS.MarketWatch.com
and ft.com, the leading international business information Web site
in both North America and Europe.
The transaction, which is subject to the approval of Data
Broadcasting's shareholders, regulatory approvals and other customary
conditions with respect to Data Broadcasting and MarketWatch.com, is
expected to be completed early in 2000.
Commenting on the merger, Stephen Hill, chief executive of the
Financial Times group, said: ''The merger of FTAM and Data
Broadcasting forms a very powerful combination to offer to the global
management community. Both businesses have strong market positions,
highly valued content, flexible technology and excellent products.
Together, we will be in great shape to broaden our scope of services
across the specialist asset management and portfolio evaluation
market and capitalize on the opportunities to deliver more of our
products by Internet.''
Allan Tessler and Alan Hirschfield, Data Broadcasting's co-chief
executive officers, said: ''As a result of our agreement with
Pearson, the merger of FTAM and Data Broadcasting, together with our
stake in MarketWatch.com and the link to the FT group, will create
the world's leading specialist financial information business. We
believe that this transaction will accelerate our presence in the
Internet world and create significant long-term value for our
shareholders.''
Commenting on plans for a marketing alliance with MarketWatch.com,
Hill added: ''We are very excited at becoming a shareholder in
MarketWatch.com, which operates one of America's foremost financial
information Web sites, and the opportunities it will open for ft.com.
These are two very distinctive and complementary products.
CBS.MarketWatch.com is strongly focused on actionable, market-
oriented news, while we are building ft.com as the information
partner of the global business community. There are some very
exciting opportunities for cross-promotion as we develop both
businesses in Europe and North America.''
Larry Kramer, president and chief executive officer of
MarketWatch.com, said: ''This is a very exciting development for
CBS.MarketWatch.com. We look forward to working with our new partner.
Our news operations are very complementary, so we can easily cross-
promote and help bring each other's content to our respective
markets.''
Note to Editors
Data Broadcasting, whose shares trade on the Nasdaq National Market,
generated revenues of approximately $108 million for the fiscal year
ended June 30, 1999. The business is strongly cash positive, and in
the year ended June 30, 1999, Data Broadcasting registered EBITDA of
$14.1 million, or $0.63 per share, before income taxes, depreciation
and goodwill and intangibles amortization charges of $15 million and
its share of MarketWatch.com losses of $6 million. At the close of
trading Friday, November 12, 1999, Data Broadcasting had a market
capitalization of approximately $495 million. Its businesses include
CMS, which provides fixed income portfolio analytics to institutional
investment managers; eSignal, which provides real-time market data,
trading and research delivered via the Internet to active individual
traders, brokers and investors; and InSite, which provides market
data and research for the professional market.
Data Broadcasting owns approximately 32% of MarketWatch.com, operator
of CBS.MarketWatch.com, one of the leading financial news Web sites
in the United States, providing real-time breaking financial news and
commentary on market-moving trends and events. In the three months
ended September 30, 1999, MarketWatch.com attracted an average of 4.6
million unique monthly visitors and a total of some 434 million page
views, according to DoubleClick, a 250% increase over the same period
last year. In the nine months ended September 30, 1999, the company
generated revenues of approximately $14.9 million. MarketWatch.com
trades on the Nasdaq National Market, following its initial public
offering in January 1999, and has a current market valuation of
approximately $685 million.
In 1998, FTAM generated pro forma revenues of approximately $200
million. The business operates as the Interactive Data, Muller Data
Corporation (MDC) and Muniview brands in the United States and as
Financial Times Information and Valorinform in Europe and Asia
Pacific. It has a database of more than 3.5 million securities,
including hard-to-value unlisted fixed income instruments, and
specializes in data collections and internally authored evaluations
of fixed income securities.
FTAM is a leading source of comprehensive disclosure data, factor
information and independent valuations for a comprehensive range of
U.S. securities and offers full descriptive information of more than
2 million U.S. municipal bonds. It also collects and distributes
corporate action information on equities and bonds all over the
world, specializing in ''hard to get'' information from emerging
markets.
FTAM is part of the Financial Times group, which also consists of:
-- the Financial Times newspaper, the world's leading international
business newspaper;
-- ft.com, one of the world's leading business information Web sites;
-- the leading business and financial Web sites in France (Les Echos) and
Spain (Expansion), with a new German language business and finance
newspaper to be launched in partnership with Gruner + Jahr, one of
Germany's leading newspaper and magazine publishers, early in the new
year;
-- Financial Times Business, which produces specialist information on
energy and finance markets;
-- FTSE International, a joint venture with the London Stock Exchange,
which provides the professional investment community with the leading
UK indices and, together with the Amsterdam Stock Exchange, publishes
the Eurotop family of indices;
-- AFX news, a news agency jointly owned with Agence France-Presse, which
is a global provider of real-time financial and business news;
-- a 50% stake in BDFM, publisher of South Africa's leading financial
newspaper and Web site; and
-- a 50% stake in The Economist group, which publishes the world's
leading weekly business and current affairs journal.
The Financial Times group is part of Pearson plc, the international
media company, which also owns Pearson Education, the world's leading
education company; Pearson Television, the world's leading
international independent television production company; the Penguin
group, the world's most renowned English-language publisher; and
Recoletos, one of Spain's leading media companies.
Data Broadcasting Corporation is the leading provider of real-time
market data to the individual trader and investor. The company
delivers real-time stock quotes, financial information and news to
the PCs, laptops and hand-held devices of millions of users via the
Internet, dedicated lines, wireless FM, cable and satellite. With the
BondEdge service from its Capital Management Sciences division, Data
Broadcasting also is the leading provider of fixed income portfolio
analytics used for valuation and risk management purposes. Data
Broadcasting's Internet presence includes dbc.com,
esignal.com, cbs.marketwatch.com,
insite.dbc.com, bondedge.com, sports.dbc.com
and dbceuro.com.
Matters discussed in this release include forward-looking statements
that involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may be
materially different. Factors that could cause actual results to
differ include the response of competitors to the company's new
services, acceptance of the Internet as a valid real-time
distribution platform by institutional customers, activity levels in
the securities markets and other risk factors listed in the Company's
10-K and 10-Q reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
SOURCE: Data Broadcasting Corporation |
