SCROLLING NEWS

In the True Confessions dept.: "I was a group executive at Citibank in June of 1986 when it purchased Quotron. That was a real eye-opener," writes Richard Huber in the current Harvard Business Review. "I watched my colleagues, so confident of their ability to comprehend and manage information technology, spend hundred of millions of dollars to buy the market-data-distribution company and hundreds of millions more trying to make it work...Today I attribute Citibank's failure partially to its misguided belief that banking is first and foremost an information business." Huber is now vice chairman of Continental Bank, which outsources its technology (Trading Systems Technology, Oct. 7, 1991).

Dow Jones/Telerate last week reported that revenue was up in 1992 for its Information Services segment, which includes Dow Jones/Telerate and the Business Information Services groups. At $809.4 million, the group's annual revenue rose 6.2 percent over the previous year -- although operating income rose only by 2.1 percent for the same period. Quarterly operating income crept up by a mere 0.1 percent from fourth quarter 1991 -- even though quarterly revenues were up 8.9 percent. "There's money being spent on Telerate," says a Dow Jones spokesperson, in explanation of the discrepancy between revenue and income growth.

In the department of indeterminate destinations: Dow Jones/Telerate's Brian O'Heron has left the vendor. O'Heron was a long-time senior development executive most recently holding the title of senior vice president in charge of transaction services.

Ken Troy has been named president of Reuters Canada, replacing Max Finucane who left Reuters -- and the market data business -- last month (IMD, Nov. 23, 1992). The new Canadian head will report to Reuters executive vice president Bill O'Shea. Troy had been president of Reuters' data services division. He was previously chief of the IP Sharp historical database company, which was acquired by Reuters in 1987. Troy is not the first former IP Sharp exec to inch up Reuters' corporate ladder: Janet Pistone, who was named Downtown district head following Will Kennedy's flight from the industry last fall, is also ex-IP Sharp.

As expected (IMD, Nov. 9, 1992), Telerate's Treasury 500 series now includes tradable odd-lot prices for every outstanding Treasury issue. Prices are generated by Cantor Fitzgerald L.P.'s Treasury odd-lot service, to which five dealers are contributing prices, with at least three dealers for each security.

Corporate bond broker MKI Securities is one of the newest redistributors of Govpx Inc. Treasury data. Although interdealer Treasury broker Garban Ltd. is its sister company, MKI is carrying Govpx prices as part of its private screen of corporate bond prices.

Reading the future in the want ads: ILX is seeking workstation developers conversant in UNIX, Microsoft Corp. Windows, Windows NT and Apple Computer Inc.'s operating systems -- looks like Furman Selz may indeed be getting a Mac-based ILX system (IMD, Nov. 23, 1992). ADP is on the prowl for Windows-, TCP/IP- and RS/6000-literate programmers. Quotron, too, is looking to add between five and ten programmers with UNIX and C expertise, in support of existing projects. Thomson would like help selling and providing customer support for its Investext database.

Retail brokers value electronic information most highly of any support service, according to a recent survey by the Philadelphia Stock Exchange. Electronic information was rated above client leads, secretarial services, product education... and branch managers.