History

Wombat Financial Software Inc., "Wombat", (formerly Wombat Consulting, Inc.) was founded by Ron Verstappen in 1997, having left TIBCO Inc. (formerly Teknekron Software Systems, Inc.) after five years. Initially, Wombat focused on providing high value consulting and services based around TIBCO products.

The transition from services to software products began in 1999, with the first feed handler customer. It is significant that the first feed handlers developed included those for OPRA, NASDAQ and CTA. Almost all of our competitors began by producing software for relatively low volume futures, fixed income or European feeds. As a group, their architectures have struggled to scale to the high end volumes where Wombat has been successful from the outset.

The initial business model was for the company to remain small, providing market data products for a handful of blue-chip clients. However, changes and opportunities in the market combined with strong word of mouth referrals created a marked increase in demand for Wombat products, starting in 2002. In March 2003, the decision was made to significantly grow the company.

A two step strategy was adopted to prepare for growth. In 2003, the first stage was to build the core team and technology while developing a broad strategic plan to allow the company to expand through 2004-2005. During 2003, Wombat successfully recruited a number of very experienced staff. Several new products were developed and considerable engineering effort focused on the creation of foundation software modules. 2003 also saw very impressive growth both in terms of new business, and repeat business, as the range of supported feeds expanded.

With proven technology and a core team in place, the drive for growth began in earnest in 2004. The inaugural 'Wombat Summit Conference' was held in February, with a formal marketing launch in April. More new products and modules were released in 2004 than in any year to date. When combined, these provided the Wombat "Next Generation Market Data Infrastructure".

A strong commitment to solid engineering principles is central to Wombat's current success and future growth. The software is designed to be modular, scalable, flexible, extensible and supportable by Wombat with minimum effort.

Wombat's recognition within the industry led to the company's acquisition by NYSE Euronext (NYSE/Euronext: NYX) in March 2008. The deal sees Wombat's market-leading data management and distribution software integrated into the NYSE Euronext Advanced Trading Solutions division to provide integrated commercial technology solutions for financial services firms and other markets.