Bloomberg to Acquire European Decision-Support Provider
Bloomberg to Acquire European Decision-Support Provider
By Alexa Jaworski
April 11, 2006 - Making a rare acquisition, Bloomberg has reached an agreement to purchase Brainpower, a leading European provider of decision-support software and analytics for the investment management community. According to an announcement by Brainpower, Bloomberg will pay EUR1.88 ($2.28) in cash for each outstanding share of Brainpower's common stock, which trades on the Geregelter Markt of the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. That would value the deal at more than $40 million, said a source close to the transaction.
Bloomberg officials were not immediately available to comment on the transaction or their plans for Brainpower, an Amsterdam-registered company with headquarters in Lugano, Switzerland and an additional office in Milan. Bloomberg senior executive Tom Secunda said in a prepared statement, "This acquisition supports Bloomberg's ongoing commitment to innovation and continual product enhancements, adding value for users of the Bloomberg Professional service," which is the privately held company's flagship market data and trading package. "The integration of Brainpower's proprietary technology with Bloomberg's powerful data and analytics will further broaden and deepen the Bloomberg Professional service for global investment managers," said Secunda.
According to Brainpower's Web site, it has more than 100 customer institutions in Europe, Asia and the U.S. using systems for security screening and analysis, portfolio analysis, risk and performance analysis, asset allocation, alerting and reporting. Brainpower also provides firm wide solutions for reference data storage and management and firm wide publication of analytical content through on- and off-line reporting and market and portfolio monitoring.
Angelo Maestrini, EVP of corporate development at Brainpower, said many companies had expressed interest in partnering on various levels. "But, we came to believe that Bloomberg presented the best opportunity for us, our employees and the industry at large," he said in an exchange of e-mails with Securities Industry News. "Bloomberg was attractive to us on many fronts. Their culture is highly entrepreneurial like ours. We like their senior management and the technical staff. They value our technology, and they particularly value our staff. This merger is also is an opportunity to offer Brainpower capabilities to Bloomberg systems used by a large number of financial professionals around the world."
Brainpower CEO Rocco Pellegrinelli called the acquisition "a compelling value for our shareholders and a very exciting opportunity for our employees. Being part of Bloomberg will provide the financial strength, world-class brand and unrivaled market share to best leverage Brainpower's people and technology assets." The company was founded in 1993, had 62 full-time employees at year-end 2005 and reported a EUR1 million loss for the year on EUR7 million in revenue.
Brainpower's three co-founders--Pellegrinelli, CTO Luca Spampinato and Sandro Bottarelli, chief development officer--and other members of senior management will stay with the company "to provide added value to the combined operations and contribute through a successful and a smooth integration with Bloomberg," added Maestrini.
The companies said earlier this week that the tender offer will be launched within 10 to 15 business days and will be financed through Bloomberg's working capital. The tender offer is contingent on Bloomberg's acquiring--including the top managers' already-sold 50.67 percent interest--85 percent of Brainpower shares, as well as certain other closing conditions. New York-based investment bank Marlin & Associates provided strategic and financial advice to Brainpower.
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