S&P Global agreed to acquire With Intelligence from private equity firm Motive Partners for $1.8 billion, the company's largest acquisition since completing its $44 billion merger with IHS Markit in 2022. The deal gives S&P immediate scale in private markets intelligence—LP due diligence databases, fund performance analytics, and network-effect datasets that Bloomberg and Preqin have spent a decade building.

With Intelligence operates databases covering 17,000 funds and 4,500 fund managers, focused on hedge funds, private equity, private credit, and real assets. The company generates approximately $175 million in annual revenue, implying a purchase multiple near 10.3x trailing sales. S&P expects the deal to close in the second half of 2025, subject to regulatory clearance in the U.S. and EU. Motive Partners acquired With Intelligence in 2021 for an undisclosed amount, reportedly under $500 million, marking a clean triple-plus exit in four years.

The acquisition matters because private markets data is the last uncolonized territory in financial information. Public equities have Bloomberg terminals and FactSet. Fixed income has Tradeweb and MarketAxess reference data. But private markets—now managing $13 trillion globally—still rely on fragmented Excel files, stale PDFs, and phone calls to placement agents. Institutional allocators spend 200-400 hours per private fund due diligence cycle because no single source holds verified track records, fee structures, and LP references in one place. S&P is betting it can tax that inefficiency the way it taxes corporate credit ratings.

S&P already owns the Market Intelligence division, which includes LCD for leveraged loan data and Capital IQ for private company financials. With Intelligence plugs into that stack cleanly. The combined entity can now offer family offices and consultants a vertical slice: credit-agreement details from LCD, portfolio-company fundamentals from Capital IQ, and manager due diligence from With Intelligence. That's the bundle Bloomberg has been assembling via acquisitions like New Energy Finance and its private capital analytics team. Preqin, recently acquired by BlackRock for $3.2 billion, sits in the same fight.

Allocators should watch three things. First, whether S&P integrates With Intelligence's hedge fund database into Capital IQ Pro by early 2026—the timeline S&P gave for "meaningful product synergies." Second, whether Bloomberg responds by acquiring one of the remaining independent platforms: Burgiss, eFront (already owned by BlackRock via Preqin), or one of the European LP network databases. Third, subscription price changes. S&P's Market Intelligence already runs $30,000-$60,000 per seat annually for institutional clients. If With Intelligence's standalone products reprice upward after integration, smaller family offices will exit to cheaper alternatives, potentially opening a wedge for startups.

The deal closes the week S&P Global's credit ratings division faces a $1.4 billion jury award in Australia over its AAA ratings on toxic mortgage securities before 2008. S&P is appealing. The company generated $11.3 billion in revenue in 2023, with Market Intelligence contributing $3.1 billion. With Intelligence adds $175 million, or roughly 1.5% to that segment, but positions S&P in a vertical expected to grow at 12-15% annually as more capital moves off public markets.