IDC Interactive Data Corp.

Alliance aims to increase available data used in corporate and government bond evaluations and expands data sourcing alternatives FT Interactive Data, part of Interactive Data (NYSE: IDC) and a leading global supplier of securities pricing, evaluations and data for valuation purposes, and Markit Group Limited ('Markit'), a leading source of independent mark-to-market pricing and valuations, today announced a groundbreaking strategic alliance in the corporate and government bond valuation marketplace. The companies believe that this initiative will further strengthen the quality of FT Interactive Data's comprehensive bond evaluation services. The alliance supports the evolution of corporate bond valuations by allowing FT Interactive Data to use Markit's credit default swap (CDS), credit index and bond pricing data within FT Interactive Data's corporate and government bond evaluation models. This integration of pricing data across related asset classes will augment existing data sources already used by FT Interactive Data's international teams of evaluators in the interpretation of the markets, providing visibility to new areas of the credit markets and permitting a broader array of comparative analyses for the benefit of FT Interactive Data's customers. FT Interactive Data provides independent daily evaluations for approximately 2.5 million fixed income and international equity issues, and is a leading supplier of evaluated pricing to more than 4,000 global financial institutions. Backed by more than 30 years of experience in evaluating fixed income securities, FT Interactive Data has proven itself to be an industry leader. Markit is a leading provider of daily, independent mark-to-market pricing, over-the-counter derivative valuations, dividend forecasting, index services and reference entity data. Pricing is drawn from over 50 dealing firms and provided to over 300 financial institutions globally. Stuart Clark, Interactive Data's president and chief executive officer, said: "We believe that Markit's insight on the global credit market, combined with FT Interactive Data's strength and expertise in the fixed income evaluation arena, will help infuse even more quality and depth into the comprehensive range of services we offer to our customers. The alliance also provides a significant volume of additional credit market information that will supplement FT Interactive Data's well-established methodology and enable us to offer evaluations of corporate and sovereign debt instruments that better reflect the complexities of today's ever-changing marketplace." "Markit is delighted to be working with FT Interactive Data to contribute to the evolution of critically important evaluated bond pricing," added Lance Uggla, chief executive officer of Markit Group. In addition to the incorporation of CDS pricing into FT Interactive Data's corporate and government bond evaluations, this alliance provides for the expansion and enhancement of the service offerings of both FT Interactive Data and Markit. FT Interactive Data will now provide its customers with access to Markit's CDS and loan datasets, historical data, CDX(TM) and iTraxx(TM) families of index data, and Markit's Reference Entity Database (RED), the industry standard for reference entity and reference obligation identifiers used throughout the CDS markets. Markit will now provide its clients with access to FT Interactive Data's fixed income evaluation services through the Markit Portal(TM). The Markit Portal is a leading distribution channel for integrated asset pricing, news and independent research. Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements This press release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Federal securities laws, and is subject to the safe-harbor created by such Act and laws. Forward-looking statements may include our statements regarding our goals, beliefs, strategies, objectives, plans including product and service developments, future financial conditions, results or projections or current expectations including Interactive Data's belief that FT Interactive Data's strategic alliance with Markit will further strengthen the quality of its comprehensive bond evaluation services, will help infuse more quality and depth into FT Interactive Data's services, will bring ongoing benefits to FT Interactive Data's corporate and government bond evaluations and will provide benefits to FT Interactive Data customers because of FT Interactive Data evaluators' ability to perform a broader array of comparative analyses. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (i) the ability of FT Interactive Data to derive the anticipated benefits from the strategic alliance with Markit including the ability to further strengthen the quality of FT Interactive Data's comprehensive bond evaluation services, to help infuse more quality and depth into FT Interactive Data's services and to provide the expected benefits to FT Interactive Data's evaluations and customers; and (ii) other factors identified in Interactive Data's most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements. -ENDS- About Interactive Data Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC) is a leading global provider of securities pricing, financial information and analytic tools to institutional and individual investors. The company supplies time-sensitive pricing (including evaluated pricing), dividend, corporate action and descriptive information for more than 3.5 million securities traded around the world, including hard-to-value instruments. Many of the world's best-known financial service and software companies subscribe to the company's services in support of their trading, analysis, portfolio management and valuation activities. Interactive Data is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts. Through its branded businesses, FT Interactive Data, ComStock, CMS BondEdge and eSignal, Interactive Data has approximately 2,100 employees in offices located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Pearson plc (LSE: PSON; NYSE: PSO), an international media company whose businesses include the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education and the Penguin Group, owns approximately 60 percent of the outstanding common stock of Interactive Data Corporation. FT Interactive Data, part of Interactive Data, is a leading provider of financial information and analytical software to global markets. FT Interactive Data supplies global securities pricing, evaluations, dividend, corporate action and descriptive information designed to support mutual funds' pricing activities, securities operations, research and portfolio management. FT Interactive Data collects, edits, maintains and delivers data on more than 3.5 million securities, including daily evaluations for approximately 2.5 million fixed income and international equity issues. FT Interactive Data specialises in 'hard-to-value' instruments and 'hard-to-get' information from emerging markets. The FT Interactive Data business includes FT Interactive Data Corporation, a Delaware corporation, and the FT Interactive Data divisions of Interactive Data (Europe) Ltd. and Interactive Data (Australia) Pty Ltd. For further information about Interactive Data please see: www.interactivedata.com About Markit Markit is the benchmark industry source of independent pricing and valuations for the global financial and energy markets. Markit has data contributed by over 50 dealing firms, and its services are used by 400 institutions globally. Areas of product expertise include OTC derivatives (credit, equity, FX, rates, inflation, energy, power, metals and structured products), corporate bonds, syndicated loans, dividend forecasting, and index and ETF management. Markit has most recently brought price transparency to the European asset-backed securities market with the launch of the first independent ABS pricing service. Markit's position in the derivative markets was acknowledged by the industry in 2005, with awards from IFR for Innovation of the Year (Credit Event Fixings); Financial News for Best Derivatives Data Provider; and Institutional Investor's Operations Management for Vendor of the Year (RED). For further information about Markit please see: www.markit.com