After a neck and neck battle between the two bidders, Getco LLC and Virtu Financial LLC, Knight Capital Group Inc. has finally decided to pursue the deal offered by Getco. Getco LLC will take over operations of Knight Capital for around $ 1.8 billion, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Getco reportedly increased its offer from the initial offering of $ 3.50 per share as the bidding heated up. It will now be paying $3.75 per share - part of which will be in cash and the rest in shares, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Getco is a high speed trading company that deals in stocks, securities and bonds. The firm declared that the takeover was a step toward its efforts to expand beyond the trading business, reported The Wall Street Journal.
Getco was one of the rescuing companies that bailed Knight Capital out of its $450 million debt it incurred due to a trading software error, reported Bloomberg.
"This is definitely a coming-out moment for Getco," Michael Wong, an analyst at Morningstar Inc. told The Wall Street Journal.
"The most bang for the buck will be with Getco," Ben Schwartz, chief market strategist, Lightspeed Financial Inc., told Bloomberg.
"They can consolidate as liquidity providers and they will be able to bring their technologies together to create a more efficient market," he added.
However, this decision comes as a setback for Virtu Financial LLC. If Virtu had taken over Knights, the company would have turned in to a private trading firm and lesser job cuts could have been expected.
By the end of September 2012, Knight Capital claimed that it had 1545 employees, while in June, Getco had cut 40 jobs and remained with 400 employees, reported Bloomberg.
Job cuts are expected to happen among the workforce of Knight Capital as the acquisition will put Getco in charge of all operations.
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