7RIDGE Acquires American Financial Exchange (AFX)

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) to Acquire MarketAxess Holdings for $5.7 Billion

August 2, 2026

Financial Services

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire MarketAxess Holdings for $167 per share in cash, valuing the transaction at about $5.7 billion on an enterprise-value basis. The combined fixed-income marketplace is designed to integrate electronic execution and market data with ICE’s broader retail and wealth trading franchise.

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) Acquires American Financial Exchange (AFX)

January 13, 2025

Financial Services

Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) has acquired 100% of the American Financial Exchange (AFX) from 7RIDGE. The purchase brings AFX's interbank lending marketplace and the AMERIBOR benchmark into ICE's broader index and mortgage technology network to expand capabilities for regional, midsize and community banks.

Merit Capital Partners and Fulton Capital Acquire AFX, Inc.

March 7, 2024

Manufacturing

Merit Capital Partners and Fulton Capital partnered with AFX management to acquire AFX, Inc., a Waukegan, Illinois-based designer, assembler and distributor of contemporary and decorative lighting fixtures. Merit provided subordinated debt and equity to support the transaction; the deal positions AFX to continue expanding sales and improving operations across its commercial, residential and hospitality end markets.

Raymond James Financial Acquires SumRidge Partners

July 5, 2022

Financial Services

Raymond James Financial has completed the acquisition of SumRidge Partners, a technology-driven fixed income market maker, adding its institutional market-making operation and trading technologies to Raymond James' Fixed Income Capital Markets division. SumRidge, based in Jersey City, New Jersey with about 45 employees, will operate within FICM under co-founders Tom O'Brien and Kevin Morano, who will become senior managing directors.

7RIDGE Acquires Trading Technologies

October 31, 2021

Cloud & SaaS

7RIDGE, a specialized growth equity firm, has agreed to acquire Trading Technologies International, a provider of high-performance professional trading software and a SaaS trading platform. The investment will fuel Trading Technologies' organic growth, support its SaaS product roadmap and enable targeted strategic acquisitions while the company remains independent under new ownership.

MarketAxess Acquires LiquidityEdge

November 4, 2019

Financial Services

MarketAxess Holdings Inc. completed the acquisition of LiquidityEdge on November 1, 2019 for approximately $150 million (about $100 million cash plus 146,450 shares of MarketAxess common stock). The purchase adds an electronic U.S. Treasuries marketplace and broker-dealer capabilities to MarketAxess' fixed-income trading platform, expanding its treasury trading and hedging capabilities for institutional clients and dealers.