NEW YORK, Dec. 6, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- S&P Global
(NYSE: SPGI), the world's foremost provider of credit ratings,
benchmarks, and analytics in the global capital and commodity
markets, announced today that it has acquired 451 Research, LLC, a
privately-held research and advisory firm that provides
intelligence, expertise and data covering high-growth emerging
technology segments.
451 Research will be operated within S&P Global Market
Intelligence, the division that provides data, essential insights,
and powerful analytics to help navigate the financial markets. This
acquisition will expand and strengthen S&P Global Market
Intelligence's research coverage, adding differentiated expertise
and intelligence with comprehensive offerings in technologies such
as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT),
Information Security, Data Centers, Cloud and DevOps.
"As emerging technologies continue to remodel today's business
landscape and impact our decision-making, it's important that we
invest in and deepen our expertise in these growing sectors," said
Martina Cheung, President of
S&P Global Market Intelligence. "451 Research's
comprehensive expertise in critical disruptive technologies will
enable S&P Global Market Intelligence to further expand our
sector relevant and differentiated data offerings while
strengthening our ability to help our customers understand the
digital transformation that's impacting the market today."
"We are excited to have 451 Research join the renowned team at
S&P Global Market Intelligence. For 20 years, 451 Research has
been prized worldwide for its essential insight into innovation,
disruption, and value creation in enterprise IT markets. The proven
methodologies and constant tracking of enterprise IT customer
sentiment assures that 451 Research clients can anticipate and
deftly navigate the accelerating evolution of technology markets.
As continuing CEO and Chairman of our Group's Uptime Institute, I
look forward now, as a client of 451 Research, to benefiting from
an expanding array of insight and unique analytic offerings that
451 Research creates within the larger S&P Global Market
Intelligence, that further serve both the financial and technology
markets," said Martin McCarthy,
CEO and Chairman of The 451 Group.
Prior to this transaction, 451 Research had been a part of The
451 Group. Led by McCarthy, with support from financial partners,
MLR Holdings, 451 Research publishes more than 3,000 reports and
data sets annually and serves leading technology vendors and
service providers, innovative start-ups, technology investment
bankers, VCs, and other technology market consulting and
professional service firms, as well as "early adopter" enterprise
companies for the past 18 years. 451 Research's staff are seasoned
industry analysts and cover a variety of technology and industry
segments including cloud computing, data center technologies,
artificial intelligence and machine learning.
The transaction was signed and closed today and terms were not
disclosed.
Forward-Looking Statements: This press release
contains "forward-looking statements," as defined in the Private
Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements,
which express management's current views concerning future events,
trends, contingencies or results, appear at various places in this
report and use words like "anticipate," "assume," "believe,"
"continue," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "future," "intend,"
"plan," "potential," "predict," "project," "strategy," "target" and
similar terms, and future or conditional tense verbs like "could,"
"may," "might," "should," "will" and "would." For example,
management may use forward-looking statements when addressing
topics such as: the outcome of contingencies; future actions by
regulators; changes in the Company's business strategies and
methods of generating revenue; the development and performance of
the Company's services and products; the expected impact of
acquisitions and dispositions; the Company's effective tax rates;
and the Company's cost structure, dividend policy, cash flows or
liquidity.
Forward-looking statements are subject to inherent risks and
uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those expressed or implied in forward-looking
statements include, among other things:
- worldwide economic, political and regulatory conditions,
including conditions that may result from legislative, regulatory
and policy changes associated with the current U.S. administration
or the United Kingdom's withdrawal
from the European Union;
- the rapidly evolving regulatory environment, in Europe, the United
States and elsewhere, affecting Ratings, Market
Intelligence, Platts and Indices, including new and amended
regulations and the Company's compliance therewith;
- the Company's ability to maintain adequate physical, technical
and administrative safeguards to protect the security of
confidential information and data, and the potential for
unauthorized access to our systems or a system or network
disruption that results in improper disclosure of confidential
information or data, regulatory penalties and remedial costs;
- our ability to make acquisitions and dispositions and
successfully integrate the businesses we acquire;
- the outcome of litigation, government and regulatory
proceedings, investigations and inquiries;
- the health of debt and equity markets, including credit quality
and spreads, the level of liquidity and future debt issuances;
- the demand and market for credit ratings in and across the
sectors and geographies where the Company operates;
- concerns in the marketplace affecting the Company's credibility
or otherwise affecting market perceptions of the integrity or
utility of independent credit ratings;
- the effect of competitive products and pricing, including the
level of success of new product developments and global
expansion;
- consolidation in the Company's end-customer markets;
- the impact of customer cost-cutting pressures, including in the
financial services industry and commodities markets;
- a decline in the demand for credit risk management tools by
financial institutions;
- the level of merger and acquisition activity in the United States and abroad;
- the volatility of the energy marketplace and the health of the
commodities markets;
- our ability to attract, incentivize and retain key
employees;
- our ability to adjust to changes in European and United Kingdom markets as the United Kingdom leaves the European Union, and
the impact of the United Kingdom's
departure on our credit rating activities and other European and
United Kingdom offerings;
- the Company's ability to successfully recover should it
experience a disaster or other business continuity problem from a
hurricane, flood, earthquake, terrorist attack, pandemic, security
breach, cyber-attack, power loss, telecommunications failure or
other natural or man-made event;
- changes in applicable tax or accounting requirements, including
the impact of recent tax reform in the U.S.;
- the level of the Company's future cash flows and capital
investments;
- the impact on the Company's revenue and net income caused by
fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; and
- the Company's exposure to potential criminal sanctions or civil
penalties if it fails to comply with foreign and U.S. laws and
regulations that are applicable in the domestic and international
jurisdictions in which it operates, including sanctions laws
relating to countries such as Iran, Russia,
Sudan and Syria, anti-corruption laws such as the U.S.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and the U.K. Bribery Act of 2010, and
local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to government officials, as
well as import and export restrictions.
The factors noted above are not exhaustive. The Company and its
subsidiaries operate in a dynamic business environment in which new
risks emerge frequently. Accordingly, the Company cautions readers
not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements,
which speak only as of the dates on which they are made. The
Company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statement to reflect events or circumstances
arising after the date on which it is made, except as required by
applicable law. Further information about the Company's businesses,
including information about factors that could materially affect
its results of operations and financial condition, is contained in
the Company's filings with the SEC, including Item 1a, Risk
Factors, in the Annual Report on Form 10-K.
About S&P Global
S&P Global is the world's
foremost provider of credit ratings, benchmarks and analytics in
the global capital and commodity markets, offering deep data and
insights on critical business factors including ESG. The Company's
divisions include S&P Global Ratings, S&P Global Market
Intelligence, S&P Dow Jones Indices and S&P Global Platts.
S&P Global has approximately 21,000 employees in 35 countries.
For more information visit www.spglobal.com.
About S&P Global Market Intelligence
At S&P Global Market Intelligence, we know that not all
information is important—some of it is vital. We integrate
financial and industry data, research and news into tools that help
clients track performance, generate alpha, identify investment
ideas, understand competitive and industry dynamics, perform
valuations and assess credit risk. Investment professionals,
government agencies, corporations and universities globally can
gain the intelligence essential to making business and financial
decisions with conviction.
S&P Global Market Intelligence is a division of S&P
Global (NYSE: SPGI). For more information, visit
www.spglobal.com.
About The 451 Group
The 451 Group is a
leading information technology research and IT advisory and
certification company, previously consisting of two divisions, 451
Research and Uptime Institute, the Global Digital Infrastructure
and Data Center Authority. Post the sale of 451 Research, the
Group's sole focus will be the continued global expansion of Uptime
Institute. Uptime Institute has staff in 22 countries, and is known
globally for its proprietary Tier Classification system and its
unique Tier Standards for digital infrastructure that have been
downloaded tens of thousands of times annually from almost every
country on the planet. It has helped owners and operators
discipline tens of billions of dollars of data center and digital
infrastructure investments for more than a quarter century. Uptime
Institute has awarded over 1,500 data center design, construction
and operations certifications, accredited over 5,000 highly
specialized technical experts and provided advisory services in
over 95 countries.
View original content to download
multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sp-global-acquires-451-research-llc-300970643.html
SOURCE S&P Global