Turquoise acquisition completes

Angelica Mari, Computing, Friday 19 February 2010 at 17:32:00

Former London Stock Exchange CIO David Lester becomes chief executive of
acquired business

The London Stock Exchange (LSE) has finalised its takeover of trading
platform Turquoise and appointed its former chief information officer to lead
the venture.

David Lester will take over as chief executive replacing Eli Lederman, who
stepped down after a two-year tenure.

The announcement comes just over a week after the bourse announced it had
appointed a new IT chief, Antoine Shagoury, while Lester would take
responsibility for the integration of Turquoise and LSE?s own trading platform
Baikal.






The news caught Turquoise chief technology officer Yann L?Huillier by
surprise. The LSE did not comment on whether the CTO would remain part of
its future technology plans.

"Working in partnership with a number of major global banking firms, we have
a tremendous opportunity to offer an attractive range of highly relevant and
competitively priced products and services across Europe,? said Lester.

"The European marketplace for trading securities has significant scope to
become more efficient and to grow in the coming years. Turquoise's existing
pan-European footprint is a strong proposition and together with the
introduction of new trading technology, strong governance and a neutral
structure, we believe we are well positioned to innovate and build market share,
" he said.

Turquoise was originally set up by a consortium of nine founding banks as a
rival to the LSE?s dominance in the markets, along with other independent
trading platforms such as Bats and Chi-X.

Full story at http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2258204/turquoise-acquisition-completes