NEWRY-based financial technology firm First Derivatives has made its
second major acquisition in a month after buying Dublin software firm ActivateClients for £3.5 million.
First Derivatives - which has a staff of more than 1,000 - says the takeover of ActivateClients,which specialises in applications and trading systems for the financial markets, will provide it with complementary software products.
Last month it confirmed that is was spending $20 million (£13m) on acquiring Massachusetts-based Prelytix, which specialises in providing predictive analytics generated from the billions of data points produced by numerous sources such as real-time advertising data, website traffic and social media.
First Derivatives will pay an initial $7.5m (£4.9m) and a maximum total consideration of $20m (£13m) and that acquisition will expand its presence in the fast-growing marketing technology sector.
Chief executive Brian Conlon said the ActivateClients deal was "a low-risk, earnings-enhancing acquisition for the company" and would deliver synergies on a number of levels.
He said ActivateClients would provide "additional technology capabilities, particularly in HTML5, and its staff possess software development skills that will be useful across a range of projects".
The management of ActivateClients - which had a turnover of €1m and delivered profits of €200,000 last year - include Pat Brazel and Keith McDonald, who are non-executive directors at First Derivatives.
Following the deal, Pat Brazel, who was chief executive, becomes First Derivatives' global head of software sales.