Interactive Brokers already boosts of being America largest broker by daily volume. The broker has taken steps to fortify its business with the recent announcement that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Interactive Brokers will acquire Covestor. Covestor is an American online investment management platform that allows individuals to mirror the real trades of successful individual or Professional Investors.
As Interactive brokers to acquire covestor, the new alliance serves to solidify and expand Interactive Brokers' position as the leading platform for electronic trading and investing on a globally scale. The transaction has been approved by both company’s respective boards and is expected to finanlised in the second quarter of 2015.The financial details and terms of the deal are yet to be made public.
Covestor CEO Asheesh Advani said:
"Covestor brought the convenience, transparency and cost comparison capabilities that online marketplaces provide to the financial services sector,"We developed our marketplace so that people could easily search for, compare and select investment strategies from multiple money managers. We are now joining Interactive Brokers' marketplace to bring more products to more people around the globe."
Steven Holstein, Covestor's Chief Marketing Officer:
"This acquisition increases our ability to rapidly add more portfolio managers to Covestor's marketplace, provide additional asset classes to clients, and expand our offerings globally,"
Other stake holders also expressed their satisfaction with the deal. Interactive Brokers' Chairman and CEO Thomas Peterffy expressed that the acquisition isinline with the copmany’s goal of becoming the premier global platform for investors, advisors, hedge funds and money managers to find each other. This is so by creating a marketplace that brings investors, wealth managers and money managers together. Milan Galik, President of Interactive Brokers, also stated that the development will enable the company to provide a more complete service to robo-advisor companies in general.