“Our direct competitors are two guys in a basement somewhere are already developing tools to be the next generation newsroom. If we’re not busy doing the same thing, we’re dead."

Via Forbes.com

The downturn in financial markets has the hit revenues of market data providers including Bloomberg, FactSet and Thomson Reuters. FactSet reported the number of users declined by 1,200 to 46,900 in the quarter ending November 1. The New York Times reported that Bloomberg lost 600 subscriptions — worth approximately $1 million a month  — just when MF Global went bust. Thomson Reuters has been in turmoil with some of the top Reuters execs losing their jobs in 2011.

Firms with 16 or 17 Bloomberg terminals might decide only 6 or 7 key people need them, said Mark Coriaty, director of strategic partnerships at Eze Castle Integration, a Boston-based firm which provides a full range of trading and accounting infrastructure for buy-side firms. Market data is now available from many sources at high quality and lower price than a few years ago, he added. Consulting firms have sprung up to offer an evaluation of how market data terminals are used and inform firms where less expensive alternatives are available from other vendors.

“A lot of firms have used the same technologies for years and aren’t aware of what else is out there, or the price point,” he added.

Algorithmic trading doesn’t require a terminal, noted Adam Honoré, research director of the institutional securities practice at Aite Group.

“Terminals are not where people are at any more, except for fixed income.” He  doesn’t expect the reduction in terminals to come immediately, though, because firms are pokey at monitoring their infrastructure.

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