OTHER BRIEFS

Electronic Data Systems, Inc. plan to offer market data feed (MTR, September 1987) in conjunction with "Tradepro" back office software is cloudy in wake of market crash. Firm had been negotiating with Morgan Stanley -- which developed Tradepro -- for rights to Morgan's Stratus-based "Real-Time Quotes" system, but market developments have "distracted" Morgan Stanley from talks, says EDS's Rick O'Beirne. Tradepro runs on IBM mainframe, has LU 6.2 input port for market data feed to enable real-time position-keeping. "What we want to do is fill out our offering to the industry so that we not only have the IBM-based trade processing systems but the quote systems and possibly analytics as well," says O'Beirne. One possibility: EDS may port Sun/Apollo CAD/CAM technology developed for General Motors to trader workstations.

E.F. Hutton & Co. has rolled out first pilot of long-awaited branch automation and market data system. "It's just a spectacular piece of equipment that far eclipses anything I would have expected," says David Madee, who runs branch at 1700 Broadway in Manhattan. Hutton project chief Bernard Weinstein confirms staff enthusiasm for system, which uses Data General minicomputer as branch processor, NCR 80286 machines as workstations, and quote software from Track Data Corp. "They practically ripped my clothes off, they were so excited," he says. "I expected a long pain period," says Madee, who claims no PC experience. "I expected I wouldn't be able to understand it. Before they sent the trainers over, I was using the thing inside of 15 minutes." Hutton plans nine more pilot branches during first quarter 1988, followed by full roll-out.

Track Data Corp. is latest quote vendor to add Knight-Ridder Moneycenter contributed data to its service. Moneycenter fixed-income and foreign exchange prices can be called up in Window on Marketrack service, eventually will be converted to ticker for analytic applications, says Track president Barry Hertz.

I.P. Sharp Associates unit of Reuters Holdings PLC will be home of intraday pricing host for Reuter Integrated Data Network, says Sharp president Ian Sharp. Also coming, Reuter Monitor access to Sharp network and databases via gateway, says Sharp.

Bonneville Telecommunications Co. will launch C-band quote service for home satellite dish market in near future, says firm's president, Charlie McQuinn. Bonneville joins Omaha-based Dataline, Inc., Commodity Communications Corp., and Satellite Data Network in providing quote service to rural satellite viewers.

Omaha-based Dataline, Inc. plans to reincorporate in Delaware under name of Data Transmission Network Corp., hopefully ending confusion between firm and Canadian quote vendor Dataline, Inc. of Toronto.

Reuters Information Services, Inc. and Carlsbad, CA-based NTN Communications, Inc. are expected to close deal for distribution of Reuter news and information to NTN video displays in bars. "The agreement is almost complete and we're anxious for it to be so," says Brewster Jackson, who heads sales of Reuter news in North America. Jackson won't say more, and NTN president Pat Downs also declines comment. NTN is erstwhile customer of erstwhile Imnet, which had planned to offer data delivery services to NTN for "QB-1" interactive football game (MTR, October 1985). Sources say deal may call for more than run-of-mill information provider relationship. Reuters and NTN are both Equatorial-delivered, which could yield joint efforts, and Reuters may have long-term interest in NTN's "pseudo-interactive" technology.