This Year’s Largest Acquisition? It’s Not What You Think

Quick, can you name the biggest acquisition of 2020 so far? Uber buying Postmates? Morgan Stanley picking up E-Trade?

Nope, it’s S&P Global’s deal, announced Sunday, to take over data provider IHS Markit for $44 billion. And yesterday, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) picked up the baton when it reportedly landed EU approval for its $27 billion purchase of Refinitiv, another data provider.

What’s going on? On Wall Street and in the City of London, financial data is the coin of the coin-making realm. Bloomberg was the first to pick up on the trend in the 1980s, spawning competitors—but the sector is now rapidly consolidating.

• Intercontinental Exchange, LSE rival and owner of the NYSE, has bought both mortgage finance tech platform Ellie Mae and data provider Interactive Data in the past few years.

Bottom line: The former NYC mayor and memelord’s namesake company still towers over the financial data market. Bloomberg commanded about 33% as of last year, per Burton-Taylor Consulting, but Refinitiv wasn’t far behind at 21%.