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Transactions

August 2009
Los Gatos, California
has been acquired by
New York, New York


Background

Vhayu was founded in 1998 by Intel technologists who together brought more than twenty years of experience designing and developing high performance hardware and software solutions. The Company grew to become a leading provider of lightning-fast results to capture and analyze live-streaming and historical data. To accelerate growth, Vhayu received two rounds of funding from Menlo Ventures, Garage Technology Ventures, Deutsche Bank’s Investment Arm, and Silicon Valley Bank. By the beginning of 2009, eight of the top ten global financial institutions relied on Vhayu’s Velocity solutions for mission critical operations. Thomson Reuters had emerged as a valued distribution partner responsible for nearly half of the company’s revenue and Vhayu’s velocity had become an increasingly important part of Thomson Reuter’s internal infrastructure.



Overview

Prior to engaging M&A, Vhayu was in the process of raising a third round of funding when a senior executive of Thomson Reuters inquired about buying the entire Company. Informal discussions ensued and a price was discussed. After reviewing the initial price, Vhayu’s CEO along with its investors approached M&A.

While there were numerous strategic parties interested in Vhayu, the shareholders and M&A decided it was not likely that any of the parties would be able to move as quickly as Thomson Reuters. It was also unlikely for any of the parties to be able to match the price discussed. The CEO and the other shareholders had experienced situations where initial indications of interest from a likely suitor bogged down and then collapsed. This time they wanted help from an experienced advisor that could help them to move quickly. That's when Vhayu's CEO along with its investors approached M&A.

M&A previously worked with Thomson Reuters in a number of transactions, where Thomson Reuters was the buyer. M&A realized that there was much to be done before a transaction would be complete. Among other things, M&A knew that very little real due diligence had taken place and the buyer, Thomson Reuters would be thorough on the process. The focus rapidly shifted to working with the Company to complete due diligence reviews, negotiate binding agreements and solidify a transaction that made sense to both sides.

On August 3rd 2009, the shareholders of Vhayu completed the sale of the Company to Thomson Reuters Corporation (NYSE: TRI). The acquisition of Vhayu allowed Thomson Reuters to offer a more robust solution for high-frequency and advanced quantitative trading, research and analytics. The transaction also united both Vhayu’s and Thomson Reuters’ sales and support functions associated with this business. Vhayu Velocity became an integral component of the Thomson Reuters Quantitative and Event Driven Trading solution.

M&A Role

Marlin & Associates managed the process, assisted in the negotiations and acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Vhayu's management and investors, which included Menlo Ventures, Garage Technology Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.

Press

Thomson Reuters Acquires M&A Client Vhayu Technologies

August 03, 2009

NEW YORK, NY––(August 3, 2009) – Marlin & Associates (M&A), the New York–based boutique investment banking firm specializing in acquisitions and divestitures of U.S. and international middle–market technology, information and business services firms, today announced its most recent transaction. Thomson Reuters has acquired M&A's client, Vhayu Technologies. Vhayu, based in Los Gatos, CA, is a leading provider of high–speed data analysis solutions. The terms of the deal for privately–held Vhayu were undisclosed.

Vhayu is the leading provider of enterprise tick data solutions with over 70 customers worldwide. Through its patented Velocity and Squeezer technologies, Vhayu combines software and hardware to provide significant competitive advantages by enabling faster and smarter trading decisions for financial firms concerned with the processing and storage of market data.

Marlin & Associates helped manage the process, assisted in the negotiations and acted as exclusive strategic and financial advisor to Vhayu’s management and investors, which included Menlo Ventures, Garage Technology Ventures, and Silicon Valley Bank.

“We were pleased to have helped CEO Jeff Hudson, Menlo Ventures and the other owners and managers of Vhayu to bring this transaction to a successful closure,” said Ken Marlin, M&A’s managing partner.

Jeff Hudson, CEO at Vhayu, said: “This acquisition brings together technology and content that will generate a powerful new class of solutions for financial services customers. By deeply and seamlessly integrating Thomson Reuters valuable content with the analytics and storage technology of Vhayu, customers will enjoy new solutions that will greatly expand the value of market data.”

About Vhayu Technologies Corporation

Vhayu delivers the fastest market data solutions for the capture and high–speed analysis of massive amounts of streaming and historical data to the world’s leading financial institutions. Through its unique patented Velocity and Squeezer technologies, Vhayu combines software and hardware to provide significant competitive advantages to financial firms concerned with the processing and storage of tick data by enabling faster and smarter trading decisions. Partnered with some of the world's leading technology and financial services organizations, Vhayu’s customers include 8 of the top 10 global financial institutions, the leading online discount broker, the largest financial information provider, major hedge funds and trading systems vendors.

Vhayu was founded in 1998 by Intel technologists who brought together over twenty years of experience architecting high performance hardware and software solutions. Headquartered in Silicon Valley, the company also has offices in New York, London and Tokyo. For more information, visit http://www.vhayu.com.

About Marlin & Associates

Founded in 2002, Marlin & Associates New York LLC is a boutique investment banking and strategic consulting firm focused on providing highly strategic, transaction–related services to U.S. and international middle–market firms engaged in technology, information, online media and business–services. The firm is based in New York City, with offices in Washington, DC and Toronto, Canada and has been the recipient of numerous awards, including “Middle Market Investment Banking Firm of the Year,” “Middle Market Financing Agent of the Year – Equity” and numerous “Deal–of–the–Year” awards. M&A’s professionals have advised on over 200 successfully completed transactions in the technology and information services sector, including:

  • Standard & Poor’s sale of Vista Research of New York, NY to Guidepoint Global. M&A advised S&P, a division of The McGraw–Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP).
  • Tenfore of London, which M&A advised on its sale to Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN).
  • LexisNexis’s sale of Mealey’s Conferences to Business Valuation Resources (BVR). M&A advised LexisNexis, a division of Reed Elsevier Group.
  • InfoDyne Corporation of Park Ridge, Illinois, which M&A advised on its sale to International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE: IBM).
  • LowerFees, Inc. of Westlake Village, California, which M&A advised on its sale to Bankrate, Inc. (NASDAQ: RATE).
  • Netik LLC of London, England and New York, which M&A advised on its simultaneous acquisition of Capco Reference Data Services and replacement of its primary investor, The Bank of New York Mellon Corp, with Symphony Technology Group.
  • Hemscott of London, England, a division of Ipreo Holdings LLC of New York. M&A advised Ipreo and its principal Private Equity backer, Veronis Suhler Stevenson, on the sale of Hemscott to Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN).
  • StarMine Corporation of San Francisco, which M&A advised on its sale to Reuters (now Thomson Reuters) (NYSE: TRI).
  • Applied Financial Technology (AFT) of San Francisco, which M&A advised on its sale to Fidelity National Information Services (NYSE: FIS).
  • Ventyx, Inc’s acquisition of Global Energy Decisions of Boulder, Colorado. M&A Advised Ventyx, an affiliate of Vista Equity Partners of San Francisco.
  • Xcitek LLC’s Market Data Division of New York, which M&A advised on its sale to Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC).
  • Brainpower N.V. of Lugano, Switzerland, which M&A advised on its sale to Bloomberg L.P.
  • Cameron Systems (Vic) of Sydney, Australia, which M&A advised on its sale to Orc Software of Stockholm, Sweden (STKM: ORC).
  • Derivative Solutions of Chicago, which M&A advised on its sale to FactSet Research Systems (NYSE: FDS).
  • Beauchamp Financial Technology Ltd. of London, England, which M&A advised on its sale to Linedata Services of Paris, France (PARIS: LIN).

For more information, go to www.MarlinLLC.com.

CONTACT:

(212) 257–6300 | Contact@MarlinLLC.com | www.MarlinLLC.com

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