Knight revealed its intention to acquire Libertas, a boutiqueinstitutional fixed-income brokerage firm, in early May of thisyear. A company spokesperson for Knight tells GlobeSt.com thatKnight was interested in Libertas because the acquisition wouldmean the addition of institutional fixed-income capabilities toKnight's current offerings. This is, according to the spokesperson,an important step in building Knight's pools of liquidity acrossasset classes. Knight currently provides trade execution servicesand investment research across a range of fixed income securities,including high-yield and high-grade corporate bonds, asset-backedand mortgage-backed securities and syndicated loans.

"Libertas is a fast-growing, fixed income boutique that providesbuy-side clients with proprietary research and much neededliquidity in the trading process," says Knight chairman and CEOThomas Joyce, in a company release.

Libertas will operate as a wholly-owned operating subsidiary ofKnight and has been renamed Knight Libertas. Gary Katcher, the CEOwho founded Libertas in 2002, has been named senior managingdirector and head of global institutional fixed income. The Knightspokesperson says the company will now turn its attention tocross-selling equity and fixed income trade execution services tothe combined institutional client bases of Knight and Libertas.