Orc Software takeover of FIX provider sends message to IRESS

Cameron Systems, the provider of FIX (financial information exchange) messaging platforms in Australia and elsewhere, has been acquired by Stockholm-based listed trading systems company Orc Software for $US32 million.

John Cameron, Cameron Systems founder, said the company had been looking for ways to “take it to the next level” and one of the alternatives was to have a partnership with Orc. Orc’s market range of connectivity products was a natural complement to the FIX range of direct market access products, he said. As part of the deal, satisfied by a mix of cash and shares, one of Orc’s substantial shareholders, OMX Technologies, has signed a “collaboration” agreement with Cameron Systems to link its exchange trading systems with FIX interfaces for stock exchanges around the world. “The synergies do not stop there,” Cameron said. “This is a great deal for Orc, Cameron, our respective customers and partners and the FIX protocol itself. We were made for each other.” Cameron Systems has offices in Sydney, New York, London and Shanghai. Orc, founded in Stockholm in 1987, has 190 employees in 14 offices in 12 countries. In Australia, IRESS’s IOS service has had a stranglehold on the electronic messaging between funds managers and brokers, but in the rest of the world FIX is the standard of choice for finance players. However, in September last year, FMC Software signed a deal with Cameron to use CameronFIX 6.1 as the FIX interface to FMCNet2, its real time, web-based trade messaging network. The move by FMC to get behind FIX was perceived as demonstrating the reach the FIX standard has in the global trading market and marking an awareness of the rise in demand for its use in Australia.