Add-on Acquisition • Publishing

Morningstar Acquires Firstlinks

On October 17, 2019, Morningstar acquired publishing company Firstlinks

Acquisition Context

This is Morningstar’s 1st transaction in the Publishing sector.
This is Morningstar’s 1st transaction in Australia.

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M&A Deal Summary
Date	October 17, 2019
Target	Firstlinks
Sector	Publishing
Buyer(s)	Morningstar
Deal Type	Add-on Acquisition

Target Company

Firstlinks

Australia

Cuffelinks Pty. Ltd. is a publisher of investment commentary. Cuffelinks is based in Australia.

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Buyer Overview 1

Buyer

Morningstar

Chicago, Illinois, United States

Category	Company
Founded	1984
Sector	Information Services
Employees	12,224
Revenue	2.3B USD (2024)

DESCRIPTION

Morningstar's corporate headquarters in downtown Chicago, Illinois.

Morningstar is a provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. Morningstar offers products and services for individual investors, financial advisors, asset managers, and retirement plan providers and sponsors. Morningstar was formed in 1984 and is based in Chicago, Illinois.

Deal Context for Buyer	#
Overall	15 of 25
Sector: Publishing	1 of 1
Type: Add-on Acquisition	12 of 18
Country: Australia	1 of 2
Year: 2019	2 of 3

PREVIOUS DEAL

DATE	TARGET	DEAL TYPE	VALUE
2019-05-29	DBRS Toronto, Ontario, Canada DBRS Ltd. is an independent, privately held, globally recognized credit rating agency with offices in Toronto, New York, Stamford, Chicago, London, Frankfurt, and Madrid. DBRS’s four decades of experience and strong track record are the foundation to seek out new opportunities and to make targeted investments aligned with its core ratings operations.	Buy	$669M

DATE

TARGET

DEAL TYPE

VALUE

2019-05-29

DBRS

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

DBRS Ltd. is an independent, privately held, globally recognized credit rating agency with offices in Toronto, New York, Stamford, Chicago, London, Frankfurt, and Madrid. DBRS’s four decades of experience and strong track record are the foundation to seek out new opportunities and to make targeted investments aligned with its core ratings operations.

Buy

$669M

FOLLOWING DEAL

DATE	TARGET	DEAL TYPE	VALUE
2019-11-03	AdviserLogic Group Sydney, Australia AdviserLogic Group is an adviser software firm providing a range of cloud-based and related services purpose-built to assist Financial Advisers to prosper. The company serves advisors through three core applications; AdviserLogic - its core financial planning software platform, PayLogic - its revenue management software, and DataLogic - its client data aggregation engine that collects, aggregates and normalizes data from platforms, fund managers, brokers, and other sources. AdviserLogic was formed in 2008 and is based in Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.	Buy	-

DATE

TARGET

DEAL TYPE

VALUE

2019-11-03

AdviserLogic Group

Sydney, Australia

AdviserLogic Group is an adviser software firm providing a range of cloud-based and related services purpose-built to assist Financial Advisers to prosper. The company serves advisors through three core applications; AdviserLogic - its core financial planning software platform, PayLogic - its revenue management software, and DataLogic - its client data aggregation engine that collects, aggregates and normalizes data from platforms, fund managers, brokers, and other sources. AdviserLogic was formed in 2008 and is based in Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia.

Buy

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