BOSTON - State Street Boston Corp. will acquire 100% of Princeton Financial Systems, a provider of services and client/server software products to the insurance and investment management industry.
Terms of the transaction, which is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter, were not disclosed, Princeton has more than 250 institutional investor customers.
Marshall N. Carter, chairman and CEO of State Street, said the acquisition "will enhance our ability to provide portfolio management and accounting services to an even wide variety of portfolio types - particularly in the insurance arena."
New fixed-income service
LOS ANGELES - Capital Management Sciences Inc., Los Angeles, launched BondVu, a fixed-income data service.
BondVu is designed for the estimated 200,000 U.S. money managers and retail brokers requiring real-time fixed-income data.
Versions of BondVu are priced from $95 to $195 per month.
"Until now, real-time fixed-income data of this magnitude cost the brokerage community more than $1,000 per month per terminal. The economics of BondVu, coupled with its depth and versatility, open a significant new market for CMS that could equal its existing institutional fixed-income business," said James A. Kaplan, president of CMS.
Separately, CMS' parent, Data Broadcasting Corp., Jackson, Wyo., announced it has agreed to acquire substantially all of the assets of Federal News Service Group Inc. FNS, an international news and corporate information provider based in Washington, is the leading provider of verbatim transcripts of U.S. and Russian government hearings, briefings, press conferences and interviews to most of the world's largest media, 40 U.S. government agencies and 50 foreign governments.
More information may be obtained by contacting Mark F. Imperiale at Data Broadcasting, (307) 733-9742.
Style analyzer enhanced
BERKELEY, Calif. - BARRA Inc. has added asset allocation capabilities to its style analysis product, The BARRA Global Style Analyzer 2.1.
Global Style Analyzer now will provide the ability to obtain a global overview of international portfolios across asset categories and markets, allowing easy access to returns-based analytics.
The service will contain more than 1,000 return series from more than 45 countries.
Global Style Analyzer helps consultants, plan sponsors and money managers easily evaluate the style and performance of a large number of funds.
Russell plans for millennium
TACOMA, Wash. - Frank Russell Co., Tacoma, has hired Data Dimensions Inc., Bellevue, Wash., for planning and update services in anticipation of 2000.
Data Dimensions is a leading information technology consulting services company and a provider of millennium services.
The contract runs through 2000 and includes all phases of the millennium update, including planning, pilot programs and implementation.
"Data Dimensions is helping us address our year 2000 issues on an enterprise-wide level, so that we can assure continued conduct of our business with minimal interruptions in customer service or operations," said William Larsen, year 2000 project director for Frank Russell.
For further information, contact Villette Nolon at Data Dimensions, (206) 688-1000.
Risk management exec named
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - Infinity Financial Technology Inc., Mountain View, Calif., a provider of client/server software to the financial services industry, announced Michael E. Edleson, an expert in financial markets and a Harvard Business School finance professor, joined the company as director of risk management.
Infinity's clients include ABN Amro, Bank of Montreal, Commerzbank, J.P. Morgan & Co. Inc., Sanwa Financial Products and Westdeutsche Landesbank.
Mr. Edleson will assist the company in evolving its risk management product strategy. He will work closely with Infinity clients and prospects to track market requirements and help implement solutions to financial risk management problems.
In announcing his appointment, Infinity executives said Mr. Edleson is known for applying modern theory to financial management.
For further information, contact Tina Hou at Infinity Financial, (415) 940-6100.
2 tech companies combine
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. - R Squared and Vangard Technology, both of Englewood, will become Vangard Technology Inc. and continue to provide fully integrated solutions for computing environments with a focus on Intranet/Internet mass storage backup and networking solutions.
Vangard Technology customers include Goldman Sachs & Co., Solomon Brothers Inc., First USA Bank and DreamWorks SKG.
For further information, contact Greg Hanchin at Vangard Technology, (800) 840-6090
Bank hires technology officer
CHICAGO - First Chicago NBD Corp. has hired William H. Elliott III as executive vice president and chief information and technology officer.
Mr. Elliott worked for AT&T Co., New York, for the past 23 years, most recently as founding managing director of AT&T Ventures, the corporation's venture capital subsidiary that invests in strategic information technology initiatives. Prior to that, he held positions as president of AT&T's Advanced Decision Support Systems and chief executive officer of AT&T Unix Europe Ltd.
Reuters adds products
SAN FRANCISCO - Michael Sanderson, chairman and chief executive of Reuters America Holdings Inc., New York, said the company aims to boost market share through its new Reuters 3000 Series and Reuters Web products. Mr. Sanderson told a news briefing that the products, combining analytics and real-time market data, "is really designed to enable us to gain market share."
It's not without competition.
Andrew Delaney, editor of Waters Information Services' Market Data Industry publication in New York, said the North American buy-side investment market is dominated by two suppliers, Bloomberg Business News and Bridge. Mr. Delaney said Waters estimates Bloomberg had 1995 North America revenue in this investment sector of $391 million from 29,000 screens and Bridge had $99.5 million of revenue from 6,900 screens.
"It's a lucrative market and Reuters isn't alone in targeting it," he said. "Bloomberg doesn't want to give it up easily."
Mr. Delaney said. He said the Reuters 3000 Series analytics, which would be available in the U.S. market for roughly $100 a month more than existing Reuters 2000 products, is designed to meet the requirements of professional investors and funds.
GAO approves project
WALTHAM, Mass. - Disclosure Inc., a publisher of financial and business information on companies worldwide, was given the go-ahead from the General Accounting Office to proceed with a contract awarded earlier this year by the Securities and Exchange Commission.
The SEC contract requires Disclosure to produce a database using institutional ownership and insider trading data.
After Disclosure won the contract in May, an unsuccessful bidder protested the award, but the GAO confirmed the contract for Disclosure.
