Morningstar Inc., a leading research provider to the retail channel, announced it has acquired ByAllAccounts, Inc., a provider of account aggregation data to financial advisors, asset managers and wealth managers. The purchase price is $28 million, described as ‘relatively paltry’ although ByAllAccounts’ revenues were not disclosed.
ByAllAccounts
ByAllAccounts allows advisors to view accounts held at rival custodians or banks and provide clients with aggregated analysis of total portfolios, irrespective of which portion of the portfolios advisors control. The firm has connections with 4,300 custodians and 40 platform and service providers, facilitating the aggregation of account data.
Founded in 1999, the company was sold to State Street in 2004 and then bought back in 2008 for $5 million after the firm had languished at State Street. The company received a $5 million capital infusion in 2010.
The company has 60 employees and around 1,500 clients which are mostly RIAs and financial advisors.
Our take
Envestnet, a publicly traded competitor to Morningstar in the RIA space, was reportedly also pursuing ByAllAccounts, according to an article in RIABiz. The acquisition will give a boost to Morningstar’s RIA software, Morningstar Office, which was reportedly languishing from a lack of differentiation. It will also give Morningstar insights into RIA asset flows and holdings.
We are estimating a revenue multiple between 2.5x and 3x. An average of $150,000 in revenues per person for the 60 ByAllAccounts employees would put total revenues around $9 million, for a multiple in the neighborhood of 3x.