In a move to bolster its research assets, New York-based Moody’s Corp. announced yesterday that it has acquired Economy.com Inc., a leading provider of economic research and data services, for $27 million.
Moody’s hopes the acquisition will increase its reach among institutional investors by offering its customers a broader array of economic research and a wider mix of products and services.
“We see the acquisition of Economy.com as an opportunity to enhance and deepen and broaden our product offerings beyond pure credit research into wider issues of economic analysis,” said Mark Almeida, senior managing director at Moody’s. “We think by getting together with Economy.com, we will be able to offer more creative product development.”
Economy.com will be renamed Moody’s Economy.com and will continue to be jointly managed by Paul Getman, the company’s president and co-founder, and Mark Zandi, the company’s chief economist. It will operate as a separate legal entity within Moody’s Corp. Both Getman and Zandi will report to Almeida.
“The acquisition broadens Moody’s already large base of subscribers, and increases the number of people to whom they can market their research,” said John Neff, equity analyst with William Blair & Co.
For municipal investors and analysts, the acquisition could result in access to research with a greater emphasis on local economic trends.
“Institutional investors in municipals have a deep interest in the outlook for regional economies, and this acquisition will offer our customers in the public finance market a wider array of products with a deeper focus on the economic outlook at various levels of the economy,” Almeida said.
For Economy.com, the merger represents an opportunity to grow its own customer base and expand its business lines as well. “There is no better company with which we could team up than Moody’s,” Getman said in a statement. “Moody’s distinguished reputation as an objective commentator on credit risk fits well with our role as an evaluator of micro- and macro-economic trends. We are confident that this combination will help accelerate Economy.com’s business significantly.”
Founded in 1990, Economy.com is based in West Chester, Pa. It is employee-owned and operates offices in England, Canada, and Australia.
