Morningstar, Inc. to Acquire Chicago-based Logical Information Machines, Inc., Leading Provider of Data and Analytics for the En
December 11 2009 - 9:01AM
PR Newswire (US)
CHICAGO, Dec. 11 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar, Inc.
(NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment
research, today announced it has entered into a definitive
agreement to acquire Logical Information Machines, Inc. (LIM), a
leading provider of data and analytics for the energy, financial,
and agriculture sectors, for $51.5 million, subject to post-closing
adjustments. LIM had revenue of approximately $20 million for the
last 12 months. The companies expect to complete the transaction
this month, subject to customary closing conditions, which include
approval by LIM's shareholders. LIM is a pioneer in providing
market pricing data, securities reference data, historical event
data, predictive analytics, and advanced data management solutions
that help customers manage large sets of time-series data. The
company collects, unifies, and conducts quality assurance on data
from more than 180 providers in the energy, financial, and
agriculture sectors and provides clients with one central source
for data intelligence and analysis. Clients also have the
flexibility to use LIM's tools for analyzing their own proprietary
data, which they may have been collecting for years. LIM's clients
include some of the world's largest asset managers, banks, oil
companies, power and natural gas trading firms, utilities, risk
managers, and agriculture and commodities trading firms. "LIM has
been in the data management and aggregation business for 20 years
and has developed a proprietary time-series database technology
that serves as an essential hub for trading desks and risk managers
at many Fortune 500 companies. LIM's solutions are deeply
integrated with its clients' platforms, which make them invaluable
to customers," said Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO of Morningstar.
Mansueto added, "LIM is a financially healthy firm with a strong
record of success, subscription-based revenue, and a large, stable
client base. We were attracted to LIM because it complements our
core data and software businesses and provides a new distribution
channel for Morningstar. Additionally, we serve many of the same
financial services firms, but we're working with different
departments within those organizations. By joining forces, we can
offer our clients more robust services from one provider."
"Becoming part of Morningstar will help us expand our business,
especially outside the United States where we're in the early
stages of developing our offerings," said Anthony "Tony" Kolton,
co-founder, president, and CEO of LIM. "We see many opportunities
in Asia, for example, which originates a significant amount of the
world's trading and where Morningstar has been operating for more
than a decade." LIM was founded in 1989 and has approximately 80
employees in Austin, Houston, Chicago, New York, and London. Once
the acquisition is completed, LIM will become a wholly owned
subsidiary of Morningstar and Kolton will serve in an advisory
role. Kishore Gangwani, currently senior vice president, corporate
sales and business development for Morningstar, will become
president of LIM. He will report to Tao Huang, chief operating
officer of Morningstar. Gangwani has worked for Morningstar for
almost a decade and is responsible for building and maintaining the
company's key global client relationships. Before joining
Morningstar, he worked in management consulting and manufacturing.
He has an MBA from the University of Chicago and bachelor's and
master's degrees in chemical engineering. Marlin & Associates
New York LLC acted as strategic and financial advisor to LIM's
investors. About Morningstar, Inc. Morningstar, Inc. is a leading
provider of independent investment research in North America,
Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line
of Internet, software, and print-based products and services for
individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar
provides data on more than 325,000 investment offerings, including
stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time
global market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes,
futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to
foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations
in 20 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based
in two other countries. Caution Concerning Forward-Looking
Statements This press release contains forward-looking statements
as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform
Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current expectations
about future events or future financial performance.
Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that
are, to different degrees, uncertain, and often contain words such
as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek,"
"anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," or
"continue." These statements involve known and unknown risks and
uncertainties that may cause the events we discussed not to occur
or to differ significantly from what we expected. For us, these
risks and uncertainties include, among others, general industry
conditions and competition, including the global financial crisis
that began in 2007; the impact of market volatility on revenue from
asset-based fees; damage to our reputation resulting from claims
made about possible conflicts of interest; liability for any losses
that result from an actual or claimed breach of our fiduciary
duties; financial services industry consolidation; a prolonged
outage of our database and network facilities; challenges faced by
our non-U.S. operations; and the availability of free or low-cost
investment information. A more complete description of these risks
and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the SEC,
including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended
December 31, 2008. If any of these risks and uncertainties
materialize, our actual future results may vary significantly from
what we expected. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking
statements as a result of new information or future events. ©2009
Morningstar Inc. All rights reserved. MORN-C Media: Margaret Kirch
Cohen, 312-696-6383 or Investors: Investors may submit questions to
or by fax to 312-696-6009. DATASOURCE: Morningstar, Inc. CONTACT:
Media, Margaret Kirch Cohen, +1-312-696-6383, , or Investors, fax,
+1-312-696-6009, , both of Morningstar, Inc. Web Site:
http://www.morningstar.com/
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