Morningstar CEO Says No Immediate Acquisition Plans

Although Morningstar has the finances to take on another acquisition—it recently completed four, three of them in 2006 and one last month—the company has no immediate plans to do so, CEO Joe Mansueto tells Reuters.

Instead, Mansueto said, Morningstar is focused on integrating the fund data business of S&P, which it acquired last month for $55 million.

“Our core business is growing 20% a year last year, so we can have very fine growth without any acquisitions,” Mansueto said. “We’re in a fortunate position of not needing to do any. But if one came along, we’re also ready to move forward and begin discussions. We’ve a strong balance sheet [and] we don’t have any debt, so we’re financially in a very strong position to do an acquisition.”

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