CORE DUMP

Banding Together: V Band Corp. has purchased Mercury Dealing Systems, a systems integrator and trading room equipment reseller. V Band plans to merge Mercury -- a former subsidiary of U.K.-based Mercury Communications Ltd. -- with its own U.K.-based subsidiary, V Band Ltd. The combined company, which will operate under the V Band Ltd. name, will be responsible for the direct sales, service and support of V Band Corp.'s trading room communications systems in London, among other things. MDS had been distributing V Band's products in the U.K. for several years before the company gobbled them up.

Flying the Coop: Wellfleet Communications Inc. is searching for a replacement for Phil Velella, their chief salesperson. Velella, whose title was area regional manager for the New York financial region, left Wellfleet to pursue other interests a couple of weeks ago.

Any News is Good News Dept.: TCAM Systems Inc., which has lately been fighting a losing battle in court against fellow trading systems software vendor Appleby Technologies Inc. (TST, July 25), is trying to sell its new service bureau to the trading room market. TCAM says that its service bureau can "connect institutional investors, market makers, exchanges and other service bureaus" via its facilities in downtown Manhattan. The vendor also claims that the service bureau is available to brokerage firms of any size on a transaction-fee basis.

Fishing for Finn: IPC Information Systems has hired Patrick Finn as general manager of its so-called information transport systems (ITS) division. Finn, who most recently worked as a marketing specialist for networking in the financial and securities industry at IBM, will be responsible for the management and development of ITS. According to an IPC announcement, Finn's oversight includes the "installation, maintenance and outsourcing of corporate voice, video and data/telecommunications infrastructures."

Host with the Most? Advanced Information Technologies is hosting a two-day "interactive seminar" on systems testing and quality assurance techniques in New York on October 20 and 21. AIT's literature claims that the list of firms "benefiting from this informative seminar" include: Bank of America, Chemical Bank, Citibank, Goldman Sachs & Co., Prudential, Salomon Brothers, Shearson Lehman Hutton (sic) and Swiss Bank. AIT will also be hosting seminars in Detroit, Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans, Philadelphia and Orlando in the near future.