By Ameet Sachdev
| Morningstar Inc. has agreed to acquire Realpoint LLC, a ratings organization that specializes in structure finance, for $52 million.

Chicago-based Morningstar, which provides independent investment research, plans to pay $42 million in cash and $10 million in restricted stock. The deal is expected to close in the next few months.

“We believe there’s strong demand for unbiased ratings and research in
the structured credit market, and we think the time is ripe to bring
more competition to this market. This acquisition also builds on our
recent entry into corporate credit ratings,” said Joe Mansueto, chairman
and chief executive officer of Morningstar.

Realpoint, based in Horsham, Penn., had revenues of about $12 million in
2009.

The deal would expand Morningstar’s research in credit ratings, a
business that it launched in December. Credit-ratings firms such as
Moody’s and Standard & Poor’s have come under withering criticism
for their overly rosy ratings of complex debt securities, which were
some of the hardest hit investments during the 2008 credit crisis.

Morningstar shares were unchanged in Friday morning trading on Nasdaq.