The $564 million State Street Corporation paid for multi-bank foreign exchange (FX) trading platform Currenex initially looked rich when it was announced on January 22. However, even cursory analysis suggests it had far from overpaid. The deal was done on a multiple of 22 times Currenexs forecasted 2007 earnings, hardly excessive.
What it highlighted was how cheaply rival platforms HotspotFX and EBS were sold in 2006. Knight Financial bought Hotspot, which had made...