Independent investment research firm CFRA has purchased First Bridge Data LLC, a global ETF data and analytics firm, in a move designed to bolster its service offerings.
Terms of the deal, announced and closed Monday, are not being disclosed, according to CFRA CEO Peter E. de Boer.
Acquiring First Bridge strengthens CFRA's exchange-traded fund research offerings to include a database of ETF constituent holdings data, reference and classification data, investment analytics, and daily pricing, flows and statistics, CFRA said in a news release.
"As a firm, the more we can own the proprietary data and analytics under what we do ... we're really eating our own cooking that way and that speaks to our independence and objectivity," Mr. de Boer said in a phone interview. "Being able to offer granular data and analytics around the ETFs, not just the research itself, is going to be beneficial for our clients."
Though Mr. de Boer declined to provide the number of employees, he said the entire First Bridge team will be joining CFRA. "We're on a growth and investment path," he said.
Aniket Ullal, who founded First Bridge in 2011, is now vice president, head of fund data and analytics at CFRA, Mr. de Boer said. It's a new position.
"My colleagues and I are excited to be joining CFRA, and to be bringing our screening and data visualization solutions to a wider, global audience," Mr. Ullal said in a news release. "Combining our expertise and solutions with CFRA's extensive research capabilities creates an offering that I think institutional investors and wealth managers will find to be unsurpassed in the marketplace."
By offering clients research, data and analytics, CFRA has become a "one-stop" shop, Mr. de Boer said.
"CFRA's entire approach to ETF ratings and research is distinguished by its focus on holdings-level analysis, so adding First Bridge, with its daily constituent holdings data, to our proprietary suite of offerings will only make our efforts that much stronger," said Todd Rosenbluth, head of ETF and mutual fund research for CFRA, in the news release.
In 2016, CFRA purchased S&P Global Market Intelligence's equity and fund research business.
