Strategic Insight's owner has found a potential buyer. Sources familiar with the situation told The MFWire that Case Interactive Media is looking to buy the New York City-based fund data specialists.

Jim Casella Asset International / Case Interactive Media CEO

The MFWire first broke the news last summer that Strategic Insight's owners had hired investment bankers at Jordan Edmiston. At the time, an industry insider claimed that SI's target price was $60 million.

Avi Nachmany, co-founder of Strategic Insight, could not be reached for comment for this story. Case CEO Jim Casella declined to comment on any specific acquisition targets, yet he confirmed that he's "in the midst of discussions with several companies," including one on the other side of the Atlantic whom he expects to close on next week.

"We are buying another company in London," Casella told The MFWire. "I anticipate that we'll finish the first half of the year with at least three acquisitions ... We think it's a good time to be a buyer."

Sources familiar with the situation confirmed that Casella's working with a $100 million to $120 million acquisition budget, a number Casella himself declined to comment directly on.

"We have some serious dry power behind us," Casella said, noting that Case's sponsor, private equity firm Austin Ventures, closed its tenth fund in September with $950 million.

Case is not new to the world of financial services. Last year The MFWire's sister publication, The 401kWire, broke the news that Case was acquiring retirement-plan-focused PlanSponsor magazine and its publisher, Asset International, a deal that closed in January 2009. Casella himself later took over Asset International as CEO, succeeding founder Charlie Ruffel.

Casella aims to build out Case with acquisitions, under the Asset International brand, along four lines: data and analytics, events, information and primary research. (Austin's website lists AI as one of its "acquisitive portfolio companies" on the prowl for "B2B publishers ... and other information providers ... with revenues of $5-$50+ million.")

Strategic Insight, with more than two decades in business, could fit into that vision rather nicely, with its strong asset manager relationships and two most prominent products, FundFilings and SimFund.

Strategic Insight's rivals in the fund industry research and data space include FRC, which was purchased by Mercatus from Citi last fall, Cerulli and kasina. 

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