Knight Capital (NYSE: KCG) is holding talks on the possible divestment of its market making unit, The Wall Street Journal and Reuters have reported. Citing sources with knowledge of the discussions, whom it did not name, the WSJ said Knight is expected to receive separate proposals this week from high-speed trading companies Getco and Virtu Financial.
The market making division is the company's largest and most profitable, according to the WSJ, but it also engendered controversy when a glitch in its software unleashed a flood of errant stock orders this past August. That incident plunged Knight into a third-quarter net loss of nearly $390 million, and necessitated a financial rescue from an investor consortium led by Jefferies Group (JEF) and including Blackstone (BX) and TD AMERITRADE (AMTD).
