Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Gregg Moskowitz - Auriga USA.
Gregg Moskowitz - Auriga USA
I was wondering if you could talk to user count. It's the first time that we've seen user count growth sequentially since the November 2008 quarter. Do you think we're at a potential point of stabilization? Or how should we be thinking about that?
Michael D. Frankenfield
I think it's early in the cycle to really definitively say that headcount has been stabilized. As we look back over what happened when we first went into this downturn, the first thing that happened was our cancellation rate went up and then only later did the rate of adds begin to decline.
Now that we think things are beginning to stabilize, the evidence we have of that is that our cancellation rates have stabilized and it is our expectation that the adds will then follow on a forward-going basis.
But your typical money manager, even though equity returns are positive, I still think we have a lot of time to go throughout the end of this year before we can definitively say that the markets have stabilize and we're ready to move forward.
Gregg Moskowitz - Auriga USA
In terms of ASV, obviously up 1% sequentially and year-over-year, and you had referenced, I believe, both international and domestic, investment management business kind of showing some improvement there. From a sell-side perspective, how did ASV do overall, kind of on those similar metrics?
Michael D. Frankenfield
The IV business remains a challenging market. The sell-side firms are strong managers of their costs. They have a very, very organized procurement process. It's global. They track their spending very, very closely. And they probably adjust their workforce more quickly and are more nimble in the way they adjust the size of their business than the buy side.
So we've seen a big headcount reduction on the sell side. It's very difficult to predict the trends going forward, but like the buy side, with the equity markets being up, we have also seen a recent increase in capital market transactions, M&A, filings for IPOs, but many of those deals, while announced, haven't actually closed so it still remains to be seen what happens with that business going forward.
Gregg Moskowitz - Auriga USA
How are you planning to manage operating margins over the next 6 to 12 months or so?
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