Strategic Insight (www.sionline.com), a research, data and analytics firm serving the investment management industry, has been sold to Asset International, Inc. (www.assetinternational.com). Strategic Insight will join Asset International’s other prominent industry brands, including PLANSPONSOR, PLANADVISER, Global Custodian, ai5000, and The Trade.
JEGI CLARITY (www.jegiclarity.com), the leading independent investment bank for media, information, marketing services and related technologies, represented Strategic Insight in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.
New York-based Strategic Insight provides competitive research and business intelligence to more than 200 financial services organizations worldwide, across the mutual fund, retirement income and wealth management industries. Strategic Insight clients oversee nearly 90% of the US mutual fund industry’s $11 trillion of assets and also include more than 60 of the world’s largest fund managers outside the US.
Asset International CEO Jim Casella will become the new CEO of Strategic Insight, succeeding its pioneering founder, Joel Rosenthal, 70, who has announced his retirement. Mr. Casella commented, “Our team at Asset International and our partners from the private equity firm Austin Ventures see many opportunities for Strategic Insight to expand its highly-respected services, both independently and in collaboration with other Asset International business units.”
The growth-oriented transaction is expected to result in additive synergies. For example, Mr. Casella anticipates that the combined organization will leverage the retirement-plan expertise of PLANSPONSOR, and the mutual-fund expertise of Strategic Insight, to create value-added retirement-focused services for organizations within the retirement income business.
Avi Nachmany, Strategic Insight’s co-Founder and Director of Research added, “I am thrilled to join Jim and the Asset International team together with our entire staff. This new partnership and the increased capabilities it brings extend the vision of Joel Rosenthal, my mentor of 23 years, well into the future.” Nachmany noted that Strategic Insight had been looking for a parent company with a global vision and footprint, and the professional and financial resources to help the firm innovate and expand its services to the investment management industry worldwide.
Strategic Insight Chief Information Officer Phil Herzog, who has led the firm’s technology efforts for 20 years, commented: “Strategic Insight has repeatedly proven its ability to deliver mission-critical technologies, such as Simfund, our competitive information analytics platform at the heart of the $20+ trillion global mutual fund industry. These capabilities will benefit from Asset International’s resources and the leadership of Jim and his colleagues.”
Strategic Insight is Asset International’s second acquisition within a month. According to Mr. Casella, “This latest acquisition brings Asset International significantly closer to creating a next-generation media and knowledge-management company for the global financial industry.” On June 25, Asset International announced its acquisition of The Trade, a London-based firm that provides institutional investors with news and information focused on buy-side electronic trading.