Spin Outs and M&A

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Consumer Edge acquired Earnest Analytics- this was a long time coming, or should I say, consolidation in the consumer transaction world was inevitable. There are lots of players, and it makes sense to consolidate, especially when your main clients are buyside investors. It’s hard enough to get real estate on an analyst’s screens with Bloomberg, $FDS ( ▲ 1.37% ) , Alphasens,e and dozens of other tools taking up space. Now, with the consolidation of two of the bigger consumer transaction datasets, we are set up for others to start to merge as well. I have said for a long time that there are too many products and not enough companies. Buyers need consolidation, and this is good news for the industry.

S&P & CME spun out OSTTRA to KKR- this was not expected, but at the same time, I am not surprised to see $SPGI ( ▲ 2.59% ) start to divest some of their assets. After merging with Markit, they have so many datasets and products that it was only a matter of time for them to start to clean up the organization. I imagine there are more assets that $SPGI ( ▲ 2.59% ) will start to divest or spin out as they may not make sense for the larger organization. At the same time, S&P continues to be one of the more aggressive acquirers of data & content.