SunGard MDS buys Fame

SunGard Market Data Services (MDS) has signed an agreement to acquire historical data and data management software vendor Fame Information Services.

The move will help SunGard expand its data coverage while allowing Fame’s majority backer Warburg Pincus to spin-off its investment.

The deal marks SunGard MDS’s entry into the field of reference data and historical data, the company having until now concentrated on real-time data, particularly in the US retail equities market.

John Hyde, group chief executive of SunGard MDS, said the company has been looking to get into the reference data business for around a year. "Reference data is a rapidly evolving area, and we thought it was a good time to leverage Fame’s services," Hyde said.

Yet it may cause further confusion in the industry over SunGard MDS’s strategy in the real-time arena. Some industry observers have noted that, although the company has publicly stated its ambitions to move into the real-time institutional space, it does not seem to have made much progress.

A source at the company told RiskNews' sister publication Inside Market Data that SunGard MDS is aggressively going after real-time opportunities. Hyde responded by saying that SunGard MDS is "always looking to grow its business", but declined to comment on the company’s future plans in the reference data business or on other potential acquisition targets.

Fame will be run as an independent division of SunGard MDS, Hyde said. Dale Richards will remain president and chief executive, and there are no plans for layoffs.