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Organization
12 Months Ended
Dec. 31, 2023
Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]  
Organization Organization
Tradeweb Markets Inc. (the “Corporation”) was incorporated as a Delaware corporation on November 7, 2018 to carry on the business of Tradeweb Markets LLC (“TWM LLC”) following the completion of a series of reorganization transactions on April 4, 2019 (the “Reorganization Transactions”), in connection with Tradeweb Markets Inc.’s initial public offering (the “IPO”), which closed on April 8, 2019. Following the Reorganization Transactions, Refinitiv (as defined below) owned an indirect majority ownership interest in the Company (as defined below).
On January 29, 2021, London Stock Exchange Group plc (“LSEG”) completed its acquisition of the Refinitiv business (currently referred to by LSEG as LSEG Data & Analytics) from a consortium, including certain investment funds affiliated with The Blackstone Group Inc. (f/k/a The Blackstone Group L.P.) (“Blackstone”) as well as Thomson Reuters Corporation (“TR”), in an all share transaction (the “LSEG Transaction”).
In connection with the LSEG Transaction, the Corporation became a consolidating subsidiary of LSEG. Prior to the LSEG Transaction, the Corporation was a consolidating subsidiary of BCP York Holdings (“BCP”), a company owned by certain investment funds affiliated with Blackstone, through BCP’s previous majority ownership interest in Refinitiv. As used herein, “Refinitiv,” prior to the LSEG Transaction, means Refinitiv Holdings Limited, and unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, all of its direct and indirect subsidiaries, and subsequent to the LSEG Transaction, refers to Refinitiv Parent Limited, and unless otherwise stated or the context otherwise requires, all of its subsidiaries. Refinitiv owns substantially all of the former financial and risk business of Thomson Reuters (as defined below), including, prior to and following the completion of the Reorganization Transactions, an indirect majority ownership interest in the Company.
The Corporation is a holding company whose principal asset is LLC Interests (as defined below) of TWM LLC. As the sole manager of TWM LLC, the Corporation operates and controls all of the business and affairs of TWM LLC and, through TWM LLC and its subsidiaries, conducts the Corporation’s business. As a result of this control, and because the Corporation has a substantial financial interest in TWM LLC, the Corporation consolidates the financial results of TWM LLC and reports a non-controlling interest in the Corporation’s consolidated financial statements. As of December 31, 2023, Tradeweb Markets Inc. owns 90.2% of TWM LLC and the non-controlling interest holders own the remaining 9.8% of TWM LLC. As of December 31, 2022, Tradeweb Markets Inc. owned 88.7% of TWM LLC and the non-controlling interest holders owned the remaining 11.3% of TWM LLC. 
Unless the context otherwise requires, references to the “Company” refer to Tradeweb Markets Inc. and its consolidated subsidiaries, including TWM LLC, following the completion of the Reorganization Transactions, and TWM LLC and its consolidated subsidiaries prior to the completion of the Reorganization Transactions.
The Company is a leader in building and operating electronic marketplaces for a global network of clients across the institutional, wholesale and retail client sectors. The Company’s principal subsidiaries include:
Tradeweb LLC (“TWL”), a registered broker-dealer under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”), a member of the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (“MSRB”), a registered independent introducing broker with the Commodities Future Trading Commission (“CFTC”) and a member of the National Futures Association (“NFA”).
Dealerweb Inc. (“DW”) (formerly known as Hilliard Farber & Co., Inc.), a registered broker-dealer under the Exchange Act and a member of FINRA and MSRB. DW is also registered as an introducing broker with the CFTC and a member of the NFA.
Tradeweb Direct LLC (“TWD”) (formerly known as BondDesk Trading LLC), a registered broker-dealer under the Exchange Act and a member of FINRA and MSRB.
Tradeweb Europe Limited (“TEL”), a MiFID Investment Firm regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (the “FCA”) in the UK and certain other global regulators and that maintains branches in Asia.
TW SEF LLC (“TW SEF”), a Swap Execution Facility (“SEF”) regulated by the CFTC and certain other global regulators.
DW SEF LLC (“DW SEF”), a SEF regulated by the CFTC and certain other global regulators.
Tradeweb Japan K.K. (“TWJ”), a security house regulated by the Japanese Financial Services Agency (“JFSA”) and the Japan Securities Dealers Association (“JSDA”).
Tradeweb EU B.V. (“TWEU”), a MiFID Investment Firm regulated by the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (“AFM”), the De Nederlandsche Bank (“DNB”) and certain other global regulators and that maintains a branch in France.
Tradeweb Execution Services Limited (“TESL”), an Investment Firm (“BIPRU Firm”) regulated by the FCA in the UK.
Tradeweb Information Technology Services (Shanghai) Co., Ltd is a wholly-owned foreign enterprise (WOFE) in China. Its business scope includes information, data and technology related services including development, sales, import and export and consulting. The Tradeweb offshore electronic trading platform is recognized by the People’s Bank of China (“PBOC”) for the provision of Bond Connect, CIBM Direct RFQ and Swap Connect.
Tradeweb Execution Services B.V. (“TESBV”), a MiFID Investment Firm authorized and regulated by the AFM, with permission to trade on a matched principal basis.
Tradeweb Australia Pty Ltd (formerly Yieldbroker Pty Limited) (“YB” or “Yieldbroker”), acquired in August 2023, a Tier 1 Australian Markets Licensee in Australia, regulated by the Australian Securities & Investments Commission (“ASIC”), that maintains a branch in Singapore that is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”) as a Regulated Market Operator. Tradeweb Australia Pty Ltd changed its name from Yieldbroker Pty Limited in January 2024.
Tradeweb (DIFC) Limited (“TDIFC”) is an Authorized Firm regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (“DFSA”) with a license for “arranging deals in investments” for users to access the Company’s various trading venues that are also separately recognized by the DFSA.
In May 2023, the Company announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire all of the outstanding equity interests of Yieldbroker. Yieldbroker is a leading Australian trading platform for Australian and New Zealand government bonds and interest rate derivatives covering the institutional and wholesale client sectors. This acquisition combines Australia and New Zealand’s growing fixed income markets with Tradeweb’s international reach and scale. The A$123.6 million, all-cash transaction closed on August 31, 2023 (the “Yieldbroker Acquisition”), following the satisfaction of closing conditions and regulatory reviews. See Note 4 – Acquisitions for additional details on this acquisition.
In June 2021, the Company acquired Nasdaq’s U.S. fixed income electronic trading platform, formerly known as eSpeed (the “NFI Acquisition”), which is a fully executable central limit order book (CLOB) for electronic trading in on-the-run (OTR) U.S. government bonds. The NFI Acquisition included the acquisition of Execution Access, LLC, (“EA”), a registered broker-dealer under the Exchange Act and a member of FINRA. In November 2022, EA merged with and into DW with DW being the surviving entity.
A majority interest of Refinitiv (formerly the Thomson Reuters Financial & Risk Business) was acquired by BCP on October 1, 2018 (the “Refinitiv Transaction”) from TR. The Refinitiv Transaction resulted in a new basis of accounting for certain of the Company’s assets and liabilities beginning on October 1, 2018. See Note 2 – Significant Accounting Policies for a description of pushdown accounting applied as a result of the Refinitiv Transaction.
In connection with the Reorganization Transactions, TWM LLC’s limited liability company agreement (the “TWM LLC Agreement”) was amended and restated to, among other things, (i) provide for a new single class of common membership interests in TWM LLC (the “LLC Interests”), (ii) exchange all of the then existing membership interests in TWM LLC for LLC Interests and (iii) appoint the Corporation as the sole manager of TWM LLC. LLC Interests, other than those held by the Corporation, are redeemable or exchangeable in accordance with the TWM LLC Agreement for shares of Class A common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, of the Corporation (the “Class A common stock”) or Class B common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, of the Corporation (the “Class B common stock”), as the case may be, on a one-for-one basis.
As used herein, references to “Continuing LLC Owners” refer collectively to (i) those owners of TWM LLC prior to the Reorganization Transactions (the “Original LLC Owners”), including an indirect subsidiary of Refinitiv, certain investment and commercial banks (collectively, the “Bank Stockholders”), and members of management, that continued to own LLC Interests after the completion of the IPO and Reorganization Transactions and that received shares of Class C common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, of the Corporation (the “Class C common stock”), shares of Class D common stock, par value $0.00001 per share, of the Corporation (the “Class D common stock”) or a combination of both, as the case may be, in connection with the completion of the Reorganization Transactions, (ii) any subsequent transferee of any Original LLC Owner that has executed a joinder agreement to the TWM LLC Agreement and (iii) solely with respect to the Tax Receivable Agreement (as defined in Note 10 – Tax Receivable Agreement), (x) those Original LLC Owners, including certain of the Bank Stockholders, that disposed of all of their LLC Interests for cash in connection with the IPO and (y) any party that has executed a joinder agreement to the Tax Receivable Agreement in accordance with the Tax Receivable Agreement.
As of December 31, 2023:
The public investors collectively owned 115,090,787 shares of Class A common stock, representing 10.0% of the combined voting power of Tradeweb Markets Inc.’s issued and outstanding common stock and indirectly, through Tradeweb Markets Inc., owned 49.0% of the economic interest in TWM LLC;
Refinitiv collectively owned 96,933,192 shares of Class B common stock, 18,000,000 shares of Class C common stock and 4,988,329 shares of Class D common stock, representing 89.9% of the combined voting power of Tradeweb Markets Inc.’s issued and outstanding common stock and directly and indirectly, through Tradeweb Markets Inc., owned 51.0% of the economic interest in TWM LLC; and
Other stockholders that continued to own LLC Interests also collectively owned 89,644 shares of Class D common stock, representing 0.1% of the combined voting power of Tradeweb Markets Inc.’s issued and outstanding common stock. Collectively, these stockholders directly owned less than 0.1% of the economic interest in TWM LLC.
In addition, for the year ended December 31, 2023, the Company’s basic and diluted earnings per share calculations were impacted by 270,249 of weighted average shares resulting from unvested restricted stock units and unsettled vested performance-based restricted stock units that were considered participating securities for purposes of calculating earnings per share in accordance with the two-class method. For the year ended December 31, 2023 the Company’s diluted earnings per share calculation also includes 1,872,006 of weighted average shares resulting from the dilutive effect of its equity incentive plans. See Note 18 – Earnings Per Share for additional details.