Visual comps builder

• US 20110153384A1
• Filed: 12/17/2009
• Published: 06/23/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/17/2009
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources
• Original Assignee: Thomson Reuters Global Resources
• Inventors: Oligino, Dean Anthony, Martin, Catherine Hollenbeck, Horne, Matthew Donald
• Application Number:
  US12/653,720
• Publication Number:
  US 20110153384A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/7.29
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0201 Market modelling; Market analysis; Collecting market data
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/02 Banking, e.g. interest calculation or account maintenance credit or loans G06Q40/03
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/06 Asset management; Financial planning or analysis

Abstract

A user enters search criteria for comparable transactions into a computer system and the computer system generates a scatter plot of deals meeting the search criteria from a transaction database. A computer cache, data tray, or “shopping cart” can be used to save relevant deals which then can be automatically incorporated into an electronically generated comps report.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method of evaluating a transaction by generating comparables information for the transaction, comprising the steps of

(a) entering a first set of one or more search criteria into a computer, the search criteria representing one or more characteristics of other transactions;

(b) searching a transactions data base containing data representing other transactions to identify a first set of one or more transactions in the data base meeting the search criteria; and

(c) displaying a multidimensional scatter plot of the first set of identified transactions on a computer display.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

storing one or more of the identified transactions in a data cache as transactions comparable to the transaction being evaluated.

3. The method of claim 1, in which the transactions are mergers and acquisition transactions.

4. The method of claim 1, in which the transactions are acquisitions of one company by another company.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of:

storing one or more of the identified transactions in a data cache as transactions comparable to a proposed mergers and acquisition transaction.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising the steps of:

(a) entering a second set of one or more search criteria into the computer, the search criteria representing a second set of one or more characteristics of completed mergers and acquisition transactions;

(b) searching the transactions data base to identify a second set of one or more transactions in the data base meeting the second set of search criteria; and

(c) displaying a multidimensional scatter plot of the second set of identified transactions on a computer display.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising the step of:

storing one or more of the second set of identified transactions in the data cache as transactions comparable to the proposed mergers and acquisition transaction.

8. The method of claim 3, further comprising the step of filtering the first set of one or more transactions in accordance with one or more filter criteria to derive a subset of the first set of transactions.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising the step of:

storing one or more of the subset of identified transactions in the data cache as transactions comparable to the proposed mergers and acquisition transaction.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising the step of:

the computer generating a report of the transactions stored in the cache.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising the step of:

the computer generating a graphical user interface on a computer display adapted to receive and display the information in the scatter plot.

12. The method of claim 3, in which the database stores data representing one or more transaction characteristics associated with one or more of the transactions in the database.

13. The method of claim 12, in which the transaction characteristics includes sales data and earnings data for a company involved in a completed transaction in the database.

14. The method of claim 3, in which the scatter plot is a two dimensional representation of the sales of a target company versus the earnings of the target company for the first set of transactions.

15. The method of claim 3, in which the scatter plot is a two dimensional representation, for each of the transactions in the first set of transactions, of:

(a) a ratio of a deal enterprise value of a respective transaction to the sales of a respective target company versus

(b) a ratio of the deal enterprise value to the earnings of the respective target company.

16. The method of claim 14, in which the scatter plot is a two dimensional representation of the sales of a target company versus the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization of the target company for the first set of transactions.

17. The method of claim 1, in which the transactions are selected from the group consisting of:

mergers and acquisitions transactions;

equity offerings;

fixed income offerings;

options;

mutual fund composition and performance;

equity ownership activity;

private equity investments and performance;

analyst estimates, recommendations and rankings;

league table rankings; and

company fundamental, estimate and ratio data.

18. A computer system adapted to generate comparables data for a transaction, comprising:

a computer;

a data entry device adapted to receive from a user, and to enter into the computer, a set of search criteria, the search criteria representing one or more characteristics of another transaction;

a computer display adapted to display information from the computer;

a graphical user interface in the computer adapted to control the display of information on the computer display;

a search engine adapted to search a transactions data base containing data representing a set of transactions to identify a set of one or more transactions in the data base meeting the search criteria; and

evaluation software in the computer adapted to control the graphical user interface to display on the computer display a multidimensional scatter plot of the first set of identified transactions on the computer display.

19. The computer system of claim 18, further comprising:

a data cache adapted to receive and store data relating to one or more of the transactions returned by a search of the transactions database.

20. A computer readable medium storing computer executable instructions that when executed by the computer, searches a transaction database to build a set of comparable transactions, displays those comparable transactions in a multidimensional scatter plot, and stores selected ones of those transactions in a data cache.