Morningstar to Acquire Two InvestorForce Divisions for $10M

July 17, 2006 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - Investment research provider Morningstar will acquire the institutional hedge fund and separate account database divisions of Pennsylvania-based InvestorForce for an expected $10 million.

The deal – expected to commence in August – includes InvestorForce’s database of active hedge funds and managers, its institutional separate accounts database and several online applications for manager search, research and reporting.

The move is expected to widen Morningstar’s hedge fund coverage from more than 3,000 active funds – which it added in late June (See  Morningstar Opens Hedge Fund Database ) – to an estimated 6,000. It will bring the number of separate accounts in the research firm’s database from about 1,500 to about 6,000, according to the release.

As part of the agreement, InvestorForce will license Morningstar’s hedge fund, mutual fund and separate account data for InvestorForce’s Web-based enterprise platform, which pension consultants use to manage the positions, transactions, analysis and reporting for their plan sponsor clients.

“InvestorForce is a pioneer in establishing some of the largest, most robust, hedge fund and separate account databases in the industry as well as developing sophisticated analytics and reporting features,” said Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO of Morningstar, in a release. “This acquisition will strengthen our institutional presence by increasing our global client base, significantly expanding our hedge fund and separate account databases, and enhancing our software tools.”

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