Silver Lake and Warburg Pincus to acquire Interactive Data for $3.4 billion

Interactive Data Corporation (IDC), a global provider of financial market data and analytics to financial institutions, said yesterday that it has agreed to be acquired by private equity firms Silver Lake Partners and Warburg Pincus for $3.4 billion in cash.

This will be the biggest private-equity deal since the onset of the global financial crisis that began in mid 2007.

Massachusetts-based IDC, 61 per cent owned by UK-media company and education group Pearson PLC, which publishes Penguin books and the Financial Times, is a provider of financial information to financial institutions, active traders and IT providers.

Its clients subscribe to its fixed income evaluations, reference data, real-time market data, trading infrastructure services, fixed income analytics, desktop solutions and web-based solutions.

IDC's businesses help clients around the world with mission-critical functions, including portfolio valuation, regulatory compliance, risk management, electronic trading and wealth management.

Under the deal that has been approved by the board of IDC, stockholders of the company will receive $33.86 in cash for each share they own, representing a premium of 32.9-per cent over the closing share price on 4 January 2010, the last trading day before IDC announced that it was conducting a review of strategic alternatives.