LIM's clients include some of the world's largest asset managers, banks, risk managers and commodities trading firms. LIM provides market pricing data, securities reference data, historical event data, predictive analytics, and advanced data management solutions to help manage large sets of time-series data. The company collects, unifies, and conducts quality assurance on data from more than 180 providers, and provides clients with one central source for data intelligence and analysis.
"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,” said Joe Mansueto, chairman and CEO of Morningstar. “LIM's solutions are deeply integrated with its clients' platforms, which make them invaluable to customers. We were attracted to LIM because it complements our core data and software businesses and provides a new distribution channel for Morningstar.”
Additionally, Mansueto said, Morningstar serves many of the same financial services firms, but has been working with different departments within those organizations. “By joining forces, we can offer our clients more robust services from one provider," he said.
LIM had revenues of approximately $20 million for the last 12 months. The companies expect to complete the transaction this month, subject to customary closing conditions, including approval by LIM's shareholders.
"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 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.
Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company has long been known for its mutual fund research and rating system. It has operations in 20 countries.
This article can also be found at SecuritiesIndustry.com.
Carol E. Curtis is special reports editor at SourceMedia. She can be reached at carol.curtis@sourcemedia.com.
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