NEW YORK: Nasdaq on Monday agreed to buy Thoma Bravo-owned software firm Adenza for $10.5 billion in the exchange operator’s biggest acquisition to date, speeding up its push to become a more tech-focused company.

Nasdaq, like its peers, has been on an acquisition spree to diversify its portfolio of technology and intellectual property after regulations in 2005 opened the equities trading market up to competition from brokers.

Since then, Nasdaq has bought Nordic markets owner OMX in 2007 for $3.7 billion, spent $1.1 billion on International Securities Exchange in 2016, and snapped up anti-financial crime software firm Verafin in 2020 for $2.75 billion.

Adenza’s software is primarily used by banks and brokerages, and analysts said Nasdaq’s deal to buy the company would help it diversify further beyond its roots as an operator of stock exchanges.

As part of the deal, Thoma Bravo will get a 14.9% stake in Nasdaq, making the private equity firm one of the biggest shareholders in the exchange operator. Holden Spaht, a managing partner at Thoma Bravo, is expected to be appointed to Nasdaq’s board.

“The whole here as part of Nasdaq is worth more than the sum of its parts - there are revenue synergies with Nasdaq, there are expense synergies and Nasdaq is a great global brand that I think will accelerate sales in Adenza,” said Spaht in an interview.

Shares of Nasdaq fell nearly 10% at $52.39 Monday morning as investors viewed the deal as an expensive bet. Nasdaq valued Adenza at about 31 times the company’s earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) this year, and is raising about $5.9 billion of debt to support the acquisition.