The biggest proxy advisory firm is about to buy an asset management data giant.

Joel Mandelbaum Strategic Insight President, CEO

Gary Retelny, president and CEO of Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), confirmed last Wednesday that the Rockville, Maryland-based firm has definitively agreed to acquire New York City-based Strategic Insight. ISS and Strategic Insight are both backed by the same majority owner: San Francisco-based private equity firm Genstar Capital. (Genstar also backs Artivest, Ascensus, and Cetera.)

Gary Retelny Institutional Shareholder Services, Inc. President, CEO

The deal is expected to close early this quarter, and pricing and terms were not disclosed.

The ISS team writes in a company statement that "Strategic Insight's extensive data sets will enhance ISS Analytics, the data intelligence arm of ISS."

"This acquisition underscores our continued commitment to assist investment professionals not only through a rapidly growing suite of solutions and services, but also through a deep repository of data and analytics," Retelny states.

Anthony J. Salewski Genstar Capital Managing Director

Tony Salewski, managing director of Genstar, puts the deal in the context of investors relying, increasingly, "on proprietary data and analytical tools to identify investment opportunities and to compete effectively in a rapidly changing marketplace."

Joel Mandelbaum, president and CEO of Strategic Insight, says that his team and clients "will benefit from ISS' tradition of innovation, scale, and global brand recognition."

"The acquisition of Strategic Insight is timely and will enable our firm to accelerate new product offerings," Mandelbaum states.

Asset International (also PE-backed) bought Strategic Insight in 2009. Genstar, in turn, bought Asset International in 2014. In 2016, Asset International bought Market Metrics and BrightScope and rebranded as Strategic Insight. 

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