BNP Paribas Sells Hedge Fund Tech. Outsourcing Unit

BNP Paribas’s prime brokerage group has sold its hosted co-location—technology outsourcing—business to Options IT, the companies said yesterday.

The deal, which closed on Monday, gives Options IT, which provides technology infrastructure to hedge funds and brokerages, three regional data centers as well as a pair of regional offices, in California and Texas. Terms of the deal were not announced.

Options IT CEO Nigel Kneafsey told Wall Street & Technology that the purchase is designed to bolster its U.S. business.

“We wanted to expand out into Texas and the West Coast, where we didn’t have so much of a physical presence in the past,” he said. Kneafsey added that the New Jersey data center and collocation facility it acquired in the deal will be merged with its own New York-area facility.