BATS Exchange
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|
| Type | |
|---|---|
| Location | Lenexa, Kansas, United States |
| Founded | June 2005 |
| Owner | Cboe Global Markets |
| Key people |
President and CEO: Chris Concannon; Chairman: Paul Atkins |
| Currency | United States dollar |
| Volume | 1B shares (Jan 2009) |
| Indices | Bats (withdrawn) |
| Website | www |
Bats Global Markets is a global operator based in Lenexa, Kansas, with additional offices in London, New York, Chicago and Singapore. Bats was founded in June 2005, became operator of a licensed U.S. stock exchange in 2008 and opened its pan-European stock market in October 2008. As of February 2016, it operates four U.S. stock exchanges, two U.S. equity options exchanges, the pan-European stock market and a global market for the trading of foreign exchange products. BATS is owned by Cboe Global Markets.
The company was founded in June 2005 by Dave Cummings, a computer programmer. Cummings said he was inspired to start the company after observing Archipelago Holdings be acquired by the and Instinet be acquired by NASDAQ within a week of each other in 2005. After the launch of Bats, other brokerage firms, hedge funds and other clients became involved with the company. Cummings publicized the Bats service by sending emails to companies highlighting the niche that could be carved out by trading on platforms other than the big two—NASDAQ and NYSE. The niche that he sought for the company was for it to be "a neutral, private, broker-dealer owned, semi-profitable utility" with no party owning more than 20 percent. He noted that the consolidation of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ eliminated competition and they raised prices for their services. The Bats system was intended to charge less. Among the items it did to draw customers was to offer free listings to companies with shares that traded a certain amount each day.
Cummings stepped down in 2007 and was replaced by Joe Ratterman who had been associated with the company from the start. Cummings said in his resignation, "As Bats prepares to become an exchange, my ownership of a broker-dealer precludes me from serving in management". Cummings returned to his position as CEO at Tradebot.
Under the leadership of Joe Ratterman, in March 2008, Bats entered the European equities markets by establishing a multilateral trading facility (MTF) to compete on a pan-European basis against the incumbent securities exchanges. Bats Europe was formally launched in October 2008.
In February 2011, Bats Global Markets agreed to buy Chi-X Europe, a competitor and largest pan-European MTF at the time, for $300 million. The deal was referred by the Office of Fair Trading to the Competition Commission in June 2011 for further investigation to "determine whether a substantial lessening of competition is probable as a result of the anticipated merger". However, the Competition Commission approved the transaction in late November 2011, leading to Bats closing the deal on 30 November 2011. In April 2011, Bats Global Markets confirmed that Mark Hemsley, CEO of Bats Europe, will be appointed CEO of the combined entity following Bats’ acquisition of Chi-X Europe. By April 2012 the technology integration between the two platforms was complete and Chi-X Europe customers were migrated onto the Bats Europe platform.
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Wikipedia