Quotron
| Company type | Private (historical) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial data, Technology |
| Founded | 1960 |
| Founder | John Scantlin (technology creator; company by Scantlin Electronics) |
| Headquarters | Los Angeles , United States |
Area served | Financial markets, Brokers, Asset managers |
| Products | Real-time stock market quotes and securities data terminals |
| Owner | Citicorp (1986–1994), Reuters Holdings P.L.C. (from 1994) |
Quotron was a company headquartered in Los Angeles that, beginning in 1960, pioneered the electronic delivery of stock market quotes, replacing the traditional printed ticker tape system. It offered brokers and asset managers real-time pricing and securities data. The technology was created by Scantlin Electronics, which was owned by entrepreneur John Scantlin, who had previously invented a magnetic tape-based quotation device. Quotron's primary rival was Telerate, established in 1969 by Neil Hirsch and later acquired by Dow Jones in 1990.
In 1986, Citicorp purchased Quotron, at a time when the company leased 100,000 terminals, controlling about 60% of the financial data vendor market. Following this acquisition, Quotron lost its biggest client, brokerage firm Merrill Lynch, which decided to invest in the emerging Bloomberg platform instead.
During the 1980s, Quotron's displays showed green characters on a black screen and were notably featured in the 1987 movie Wall Street. In contrast, Bloomberg introduced its terminal for fixed-income traders with amber text on a black background.
Quotron was slow to embrace new technologies, particularly in shifting from proprietary terminals to personal computers, which allowed Bloomberg to gain significant market share. By 1994, Quotron operated 35,000 terminals compared to Automatic Data Processing’s 80,000 and ILX’s 25,000. Citicorp experienced consistent losses with Quotron and ultimately sold it to Reuters Holdings P.L.C. for more than $100 million in 1994. Subsequently, Quotron served as Reuters' trading floor terminal until it was superseded by the Reuters 3000 Xtra and Triarch systems. Currently, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg collectively hold approximately 70% of the trading floor terminal market.
In early 2023, Quotron was revived by technology entrepreneurs focused on creating modern stock ticker solutions tailored for individual investors.