Automated Securities Clearance, Ltd. (ASC) was founded by its chairman, Carl LaGrassa, to provide automated trading systems. ASC’s major products include BRASS™, an automated order routing and execution system provided to over 150 broker/dealers across the United States; BRUT™, an electronic communications network that provides direct access to the NASDAQ marketplace; and AXIS™, a provider of proprietary wireless technology for straight-through processing of NYSE trades.

BRASS handles more than 500,000 trades daily, representing over 50% of all NASDAQ order flow. Customers include Fidelity Brokerage, Quick and Reilly, Morgan Stanley and Knight Securities. Knight Securities is an execution broker for several leading Internet brokers including E*Trade (NASD:EGRP), Ameritrade (NASD:AMTD) and Waterhouse Securities. Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Knight Securities are minority investors in BRUT.

Based upon a closing price of $39 5/16 per share on March 1, 1999, the 7,278,000 shares of common stock issued by SunGard Data Systems in the transaction, representing approximately 7% of the outstanding shares of SunGard, had a value of approximately $286 million. The acquisition was accounted for as a pooling-of-interests.

SunGard’s business is computer service and application software. It is the only large specialized provider of proprietary investment support systems and is the pioneer and a leading provider of comprehensive computer disaster recovery services. Its common stock is reported on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol SDS.
James L. Mann, chairman and chief executive officer of SunGard, stated, “ASC will further enhance SunGard’s position as the technology leader in the brokerage market. As trading volumes continue to grow, the processing and routing of orders becomes the key components of an efficient marketplace. Recent regulatory initiatives by the SEC increase the value and importance of systems such as BRASS and BRUT, which are uniquely positioned to benefit from thee industry trends.

Robert Greifeld, president of ASC, and his executive team will continue to manage ASC as an independent company within the SunGard Brokerage Group. Mr. Greifeld said of the proposed acquisition, “We are delighted to be joining SunGard. SunGard’s experience with mission-critical systems will greatly benefit our clients, who require increasingly higher performance solutions to handled online Internet-based trading growth.”