Citigroup Inc. said Monday that it has agreed to acquire the closely held Automated Trading Desk LLC for about $680 million to capitalize on the growth of electronic equity trading outside the United States.
The New York banking company said Monday that it would pay $102.6 million in cash and 11.17 million shares for Automated Trading Desk, which handles about 6% of all stocks bought and sold in this country.
Automated Trading Desk plans to expand overseas, allowing Citi to benefit from investors' increasing reliance on computer-driven strategies.
Steve Swanson, the Mount Pleasant, S.C., brokerage's chief executive officer, would remain at the helm, and the company would operate as a unit of Citi.
"Citi offers ATD a unique opportunity to utilize our technology in both domestic and international markets," Mr. Swanson said in a press release announcing the deal. "The combination of our businesses will position us as a leader amid the rapid evolution of global market structure."
Citi has pushed into electronic equities trading through a series of acquisitions over the past three years. In 2004 it bought Lava Trading Inc., a closely held New York maker of trading and order-routing software.
Last year Citi acquired the OnTrade electronic equity market, as well as TD Waterhouse Group Inc.'s capital markets arm, which traded shares of small companies not listed on major exchanges. In May, Citi bought a minority stake in Bats Trading Inc., the third largest U.S. stock market by shares traded.
David Whitcomb, now a professor emeritus at Rutgers University's Graduate School of Management, started Automated Trading Desk in 1988. In January it sold a minority stake to Technology Crossover Ventures of Palo Alto, Calif., for $60 million to help expand into options.
Citi said it expects the acquisition to be completed this quarter. It is subject to regulatory approval.
