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Monday, April 12, 2010

Morningstar's UK buy continues shopping spree

(Reuters) — U.S. investment research firm Morningstar Inc. said it has paid $18.3 million to buy British rival Old Broad Street Research Ltd as it expands its reach abroad and into other business areas.

Chicago-based Morningstar said that London-based Old Broad Street Research, which provides fund research, ratings, and investment consulting services, will become one of its subsidiaries, called "OBSR, a Morningstar company."

OBSR's managing directors Richard Downs, Richard Romer-Lee, and Nigel Whittingham will continue to lead the business.

"Our acquisition of OBSR strengthens our research capabilities in one of our key global markets by complementing our existing fund research team in London, and supports one of our growth strategies, which is to continue building our thought leadership in investmentresearch," Don Phillips, president of fund research for Morningstar said in a statement.

For Morningstar the acquisition is the latest in a string of purchases this year.

In March the company announced plans to buy credit rating firm Realpoint LLC and in February Morningstar bought financial blogger Michelle Leder's Website Footnoted.org, which uncovers corporate news often buried in regulatory filings.

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