FirstRain’s services included in Cap IQ’s umbrella

New York – On Friday of last week, we blogged about Instinet’s deal with Norbury. On Monday of this week, we wrote about Tamale’s deal with Jaywalk. Today we are going to write about Capital IQ’s deal with FirstRain. The common theme between the three, of course, is that service providers are racing to increase the breadth of their offerings.

Early last week Capital IQ, a data aggregator and subsidiary of Standard & Poor’s announced a partnership with FirstRain, a provider of search-driven research, which will allow Capital IQ’s customers to access company related web content such as blogs and local newspaper articles. FirstRain’s software analyzes over 30,000 sources to find information that its users might have otherwise missed, and should provide information that Randall Winn, executive managing director of Capital IQ, claims his clients have been asking for. This deal also marks the first time that FirstRain has licensed its web results to a distribution partner (although the deal is not exclusive). FirstRain will also gain exposure with Capital IQ’s clients, who number over 2,200.

We have previously commented on the democratization of research and the long-tail phenomenon in this space. As investors seek more and more ground- level primary data, it has become clear that the model for information gathering is also migrating into the public domain. Through blogs, chat rooms and other internet forums, there is deep-domain expertise to be found at very reasonable prices. FirstRain’s web-searching capabilities are an essential ingredient in the culling and organizing of this raw information into cogent trends and finally actionable investment strategies.

The larger implications of the FirstRain deal is a general trend for buy-side service providers to provide broader product offerings, including the addition of RMS, OMS CMS, research and expert data to their clients.

We have included the press release below:

FIRSTRAIN PARTNERS WITH CAPITAL IQ TO DELIVER UNIQUE WEB DATA TO 2200 FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS
Search-Driven Research Integrates a Broader Perspective from across the Open Web, including Blogs, into the Capital IQ Financial Information Service

Foster City, Calif., April 7, 2008 – In a break out move for the alternative research market and for search-driven research, Capital IQ has partnered with FirstRain® to deliver unique web data through their market-leading platform. This represents the first time that search-driven research has been integrated into a major financial information service platform. Capital IQ is a division of Standard & Poor’s. FirstRain is the leading provider of search-driven research for investment and corporate professionals.

FirstRain applies state-of-the-art search, extraction and pattern detection technology to the web to generate company models, business topics and trends critical to the institutional investor. The firm will provide Capital IQ with a continually updated data stream of qualitative web results. This will allow Capital IQ clients to quickly and efficiently discover web information that is essential to their decision-making.

Alternative research is the fastest growing segment of the financial research industry; estimated to grow to 37 percent over the next five years and reach $2.5 billion by 2010 according to Integrity Research Associates. Within this segment, the search-driven research category is the application of search technology, business models and analytics to derive highly relevant, original data from the web for professionals looking for market-moving information and trends. As a growing number of buy-side firms look to bring research in-house, search-driven research is fast becoming a “must have” tool for differentiated content.

“FirstRain enables us to provide an additional dimension of information that our clients can use to make better decisions,” said Randall Winn, Executive Managing Director of Capital IQ. “Our core offering ties together very detailed business and financial information on companies worldwide with analytical tools geared for investment professionals. FirstRain complements our offering by creating an efficient way for our clients to combine fundamental analysis with qualitative assessment of market perspectives about specific companies and industries.”

Institutional investors need a comprehensive view of companies and industries and new online data sources-such as blogs, sector and industry-specific web sites and premium subscription sources-play an increasingly significant role in the research process.

“The web is the new, virtually infinite database reflecting the world and people’s opinions of their world. It holds immeasurable facts, trends and insights about companies, people and markets. This qualitative data is vitally important to the capital markets,” said Penny Herscher, president and CEO of FirstRain. “Capital IQ has identified a key need for their customers and we are delighted that they have selected FirstRain as their web-based information partner.”

Further insight and commentary about FirstRain and Capital IQ can be found on Penny Herscher’s blog, Market Mine, at http://pennyherscher.blogspot.com.

About FirstRain
FirstRain changes the rules of research by applying state-of-the art search, extraction and pattern technology to the web. As the leader in search-driven research, FirstRain products provide institutional investors and corporate executives with a powerful information advantage by uncovering information that they would not otherwise see. FirstRain is a privately held company headquartered in Foster City, Calif., with additional offices in New York, NY, and Gurgaon, India. Contact FirstRain at www.firstrain.com.

About Capital IQ and Standard & Poor’s
Capital IQ, a division of Standard & Poor’s, provides high-impact information and workflow solutions to over 2,200 leading financial institutions, advisory firms, and corporations. Its solutions are based on the Capital IQ Platform, a unique combination of global private and public capital market data and technology that enables end-users to draw deep market insights, generate better ideas, leverage relationships, and simplify workflow. Clients can deploy the Capital IQ Platform either as a standalone solution or seamlessly integrate its components into existing business applications and portals via systems integration and data feeds. For more information, please visit Capital IQ’s web site at www.capitaliq.com.

Standard & Poor’s, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP), is the world’s foremost provider of financial market intelligence, including independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With approximately 8,500 employees, including wholly owned affiliates, located in 23 countries, Standard & Poor’s is an essential part of the world’s financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for more than 140 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.

CONTACT:
Izumi Barker
FirstRain, Inc.
650-356-9076
ibarker@firstrain.com

Evonne Lum
Ogilvy Public Relations
415-677-2704
evonne.lum@ogilvypr.com