Investment research firm Morningstar is buying Fundamental Data Limited, a UK provider of online information about so-called “closed-end funds”, a type of of investment scheme, for £11 million ($19 million). Fundamental’s products include the web-based dashboard FundWeb and info feeds, offered to investment banks, brokers etc. Morningstar, whose CEO Joe Mansueto later bought Inc and Fast Company magazines, also publishes information to financial professionals, tracking 280,000 investments; its UK site has a tenth of that plus company and executive biographies.
Morningstar bought the other financial news site Hemscott in January. The Fundamental acquisition is designed to help it “build a world-class investment database” but is particularly aimed at the UK. Here’s some irony: in the UK, Morning Star is also the name of an 80-year-old Communist newspaper that’s as anti-business as they come. Release.