After a month of speculation, Goldman Sachs was revealed to be the firm that will be likely closing a deal on the purchase of Chicago-based fintech Trading Technologies (TT). Four sources close to the matter have shared that the U.S. investment bank is close to closing but no agreement has been reached at this stage. This comes after news broke last month that the trading platform was up for sale.
Founded in 1994, Trading Technologies creates professional trading software, infrastructure, and data solutions for a wide variety of users, derivatives and futures traders, exchanges, and hedge funds. The company employs around 350 people.
A spokesperson for the company has shared that, “the TT platform is an industry-leading technology that unsurprisingly has captured the attention of a variety of industry players. Conversations with other firms about partnerships are nothing new, as we have always looked for ways to unlock additional value and share our vision for scaling the business.” Sources indicated last month that the company would be up for sale in a deal valued around $500 million.
While it is apparent that TT’s trading, network, and data analytics software would neatly complement Goldman Sachs’ data brokerage services, the alleged deal comes as a surprise to brokers in traders in London who raised that TT’s many investment banking clients may hesitate to continue using the trading software if its ownership changes to that of one of their main rivals.
Regardless, TT’s services combined with Goldman Sachs will likely lead to a more comprehensive trading platform that could outweigh any concerns of its ownership. Brokers have also shared that TT was a good fit for Goldman Sachs who could benefit from TT’s broad reach within many of the world’s top trading firms.
A deal with Goldman Sachs would likely result in a smooth transition for both companies who already established a relationship in 2019. In September of last year it was reported that TT had struck a deal for the major bank to distribute its platform with the bank’s clients. Under that deal, Goldman Sachs’ international clients were able to utilize the trading tools available through TT while the trading platform’s customers received privileges to use the bank’s suite of internally developed execution algorithms.
