ELECTRONIC TRADING BRIEFS

- Computershare Ltd., a supplier of trading and settlement systems, has acquired London-based Citywatch Ltd., a market data vendors that develops and markets ownership analysis data for UK equities. Computershare, which expects to retail all of the employees of Citywatch, paid cash to acquire the entity from Reuters.

- Datek Online Holdings recently received $700 million in private equity funding from a group of private equity investment firms led by Bain Capital. The transaction has enabled Datek, an Iselin, NJ-based online brokerage firm, to acquire all of the voting shares of stock held by a group of its original shareholders. Datek also announced last week that Island, its electronic communications network, has been spun off into an independent company.

- The Chicago Mercantile Exchange has achieved an all-time annual high in trading volume. As of the close of the exchange on Dec. 20, the Merc had achieved a volume of 226.8 million contracts, breaking its 1998 record of 226.6 million contracts. The CME could not have broken its record without significant growth in its Globex2 electronic trading volume. As of the close of Dec. 20, Globex2's volume had reached 33.7 million contracts, an increase of 109% from the 16.1 million contracts the system traded in all of 1999.

- Iris Financial, a trading applications vendor, has named Steve Husk its global senior executive. Husk, a former senior vice president at Infiniti Financial Technology, will manage Iris' New York office. In addition to Husk, Iris also recently named John Bradbury its global marketing director. Bradbury, who will report to Husk, most recently worked at Principia Partners LLC.