Standard & Poor's has signed an agreement to acquire Capital IQ, a privately-held provider of information systems and online collaboration tools for the investment banking and private equity community. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Capital IQ platform provides detailed information on public and private companies, private capital firms, transactions and executives worldwide as well as a wide range of tools for financial analysis, idea generation, relationship development and workflow management.
The New York-based company - founded by two investment bankers in 1998 and commerically launched in 2000 - claims some 700 clients and employs about 1000 staff in the US, UK and India.
S&P says it will combine the Capital IQ technology and data platform with its content covering fixed income, equities, indices and mutual funds as well as select portions of fundamental data from the Compustat unit.
Kathleen Corbet, president of S&P's, adds: "Financial professionals want technology solutions that deliver unique, high-quality information in a manner that maps to their workflow. Our newly combined capabilities will greatly enhance Standard & Poor's competitive position and ability to deliver on these requirements."