Bridge Gets $305 Million Investment Commitment From Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 29, 2000 Investment to Fuel Future Growth and Reduce Debt Bridge Information Systems (BRIDGE)(R), the largest provider of financial information services See Information Systems. in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. , announced today that it has received a commitment from Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe (WCAS WCAS Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences WCAS Warfighter Communication Assessment System (US DoD) ) to make an investment of $305 million into BRIDGE. The investment will provide significant capital to fund future growth, satisfy BRIDGE's current bank payment obligations due by June 30th and pay down additional debt. BRIDGE will use $150 million of the proceeds for working capital and general corporate purposes. An additional $155 million will be applied to the permanent reduction of existing debt. Following the infusion of capital, which is subject only to the approval of the company's lenders, BRIDGE will have no required bank debt principal payments until $10.3 million is due on September 30, 2001. "We are pleased to make this commitment to invest additional capital in BRIDGE based on our view of the company's strong market position, management team and future prospects," said Patrick J. Welsh, a general partner of WCAS, which has previously invested approximately $240 million in BRIDGE and is the company's largest shareholder. "This investment is a strong show of support for our strategy of building BRIDGE into the premier global competitor in our industry," said Thomas M. Wendel, Chairman and CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of BRIDGE. "It significantly strengthens our balance sheet and leaves us well positioned to realize our full growth potential. Furthermore, this infusion of capital supports us in our continuing discussions with other potential long-term strategic partners for our company." About BRIDGE BRIDGE, together with its principal operating units, Bridge Information Systems, Telerate(R), Bridge Trading, eBRIDGESM, and BridgeNewsSM, is the largest provider of financial information and related services in North America and one of the fastest growing in the world. BRIDGE information products include a wide range of workstations, market data feeds and web browser-based applications, combined with comprehensive market data, in-depth news, powerful analytic tools and trading room The notion of "trading room" (sometimes used as a synonym of "trading floor", see below) is widely used in financial markets to refer to the office space where market activities are concentrated in investment banks or brokerage houses. integration systems. BridgeNews leverages a network of 600 BRIDGE journalists in more than 100 locations that break news affecting financial markets globally. BRIDGE is the co-producer of the Nightly Business Report Nightly Business Report is a financial news television program that is broadcast live, weekday evenings on most of the public television stations in the United States. Frequently abbreviated to NBR, the show is produced by public television station WPBT-TV in Miami, Florida, and and is a leading provider of financial news and information to media companies worldwide. BRIDGE, with 5000 employees worldwide, and over a quarter of a million users in over 65 countries, is headquartered in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. with the BRIDGE Trading and Technology center in St. Louis, MO., and major regional centers in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Pacific Rim Pacific Rim, term used to describe the nations bordering the Pacific Ocean and the island countries situated in it. In the post–World War II era, the Pacific Rim has become an increasingly important and interconnected economic region. . For more information visit the BRIDGE web site at http://www.bridge.com. |
|
||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion