On Tuesday, two Chicago-based online brokerage firms ? OptionsHouse LLC, a subsidiary of PEAK6 Investments, L.P., and tradeMONSTER Group, Inc.announced in a press release their definitive agreements to combine under a new standalone company, creating a brokerage for active traders and investors.?
Under the terms of the agreements, global growth investor General Atlantic (?GA?) will acquire OptionsHouse from PEAK6 and separately will acquire a majority interest in tradeMONSTER from its shareholders. The transactions are expected to close in the third quarter, pending regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.
GA will own a majority stake in the new combined company.
Dirk Mueller-Ingrand, CEO of tradeMONSTER, said in the press release,??The online brokerage industry is highly fragmented. This transaction represents a tremendous opportunity to bring together two best-of-breed, online brokerages and create an organization that, as a market leading player, will challenge the status quo in the online brokerage industry. Our goal is to continually improve our customers? trading experience as one of the most dynamic and innovative companies in the industry.?
George Ruhana, CEO of OptionsHouse, added, ?By joining forces, customers will get the best of both companies and continue to benefit from the products and features that enable them to gain a competitive edge. A focus on providing superior value at competitive prices will remain a hallmark of the new company.?
And Rene Kern, managing director of General Atlantic, further commented,??As growth investors with decades of experience investing in the financial services sector, especially in those companies where technology is a key differentiator, GA sees the creation of this new online brokerage leader as an exciting and unique opportunity to be part of the next phase of innovation in the online brokerage industry. Advanced trading tools once available only to professional investors are becoming accessible to a wider universe of retail investors and market demand for sophisticated, yet easy-to-use analytics is expanding. We believe the combined company will be uniquely positioned to meet this growing demand.?
The new company will be headquartered in Chicago, where both firms are based.?