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IHS Markit
S&P Global acquired IHS Markit, the financial-data and information-services firm Lance Uggla built, in a $44 billion deal that reshaped market...
IHS Markit
IHS Markit materialized in July 2016 from the all-share merger of IHS Inc., a Colorado-based information and analytics company, and Markit Ltd., the London-based financial data provider Lance Uggla founded out of a barn in 2003. The combination placed Uggla at the helm of a transatlantic firm with roughly 50,000 customers across more than 140 countries, spanning energy, automotive, maritime, and financial services. IHS Markit did not manage third-party capital, but its data and software infrastructure functioned as essential market plumbing — its CDS pricing service was effectively the industry standard, and its PMI surveys set the tempo for macroeconomic reporting worldwide. The firm aggregated, cleansed, and redistributed information across asset classes that included fixed income, equities, private markets, and commodities. It operated through segments built on subscription and recurring-revenue models: Financial Services, Transportation, Resources, and Consolidated Markets & Solutions. Known products included the iBoxx bond indices, MarkitSERV trade processing, and the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) suite. Its derivative data and valuation services were used by the majority of global systemically important banks. The company generated more than $4.4 billion in revenue in its final independent fiscal year (per the firm, 2021), driven by a mix of sell-side, buy-side, and corporate clients. In February 2022, S&P Global completed its $44 billion acquisition of IHS Markit in an all-stock transaction, absorbing the firm into its Market Intelligence and Commodity Insights divisions (per S&P Global, February 2022). At the time, the combined entity employed over 40,000 people. Uggla transitioned to a special advisor role at S&P Global post-close, and the IHS Markit brand was retired. The deal reshaped the financial-information landscape by removing one of the few genuine competitors to Bloomberg and Refinitiv and folding its capabilities into S&P Global's ratings, benchmarks, and analytics portfolio. The firm's structural significance came not from capital deployment but from informational centrality. IHS Markit sat at the intersection of nearly every major over-the-counter derivative, syndicated loan, and private-placement transaction, giving it a proprietary view into market activity that few other institutions could replicate. That data moat — built through decades of organic product development and roll-up acquisitions — made the company an irreplaceable utility for pricing, compliance, and risk workflows across the global financial system.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
2016
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
London
Corporate office
London, United Kingdom
Principals
Lance Uggla
Chief Executive Officer
Frequently asked questions
Who ran IHS Markit, and what happened to leadership after the S&P Global deal?
Lance Uggla served as Chairman and CEO of IHS Markit from its 2016 formation through the 2022 sale to S&P Global. Uggla had previously founded Markit in 2003 and led it through a 2014 IPO before engineering the merger with IHS. After the S&P Global transaction closed, he became a special advisor to S&P Global's CEO, a role designed to ensure continuity during the integration of the two firms' financial-data businesses.
What was IHS Markit's core business model?
IHS Markit sold data subscriptions, analytics tools, and processing software to banks, asset managers, corporations, and governments. Its revenue was overwhelmingly recurring, derived from long-term contracts for services such as bond pricing, trade confirmation, index licensing, and economic-forecast subscriptions. The firm did not manage external investment portfolios; it supplied the information layer on which portfolio decisions were made.
What were IHS Markit's most influential financial-market products?
Its flagship products included the Markit CDS pricing service, which became the standard reference for credit-derivative valuations; the iBoxx bond index family, widely licensed for ETFs and benchmarking; and the Purchasing Managers' Index (PMI) surveys, among the most closely watched leading economic indicators globally. The MarkitSERV platform also processed a dominant share of over-the-counter derivative trade confirmations.
Why did S&P Global acquire IHS Markit?
S&P Global acquired IHS Markit to combine its credit ratings, benchmark indices, and commodity price assessments with Markit's fixed-income pricing, trade-processing, and private-market data. The deal eliminated a major competitor in financial data, created cross-sell opportunities across a combined customer base, and gave S&P Global direct ownership of the PMI franchise and the iBoxx index suite, both of which generated significant recurring revenue.
How did IHS Markit originate, and what was the pre-merger history?
The company traces its roots to two separate entities. Markit was founded in 2003 by Lance Uggla, a former CIBC World Markets executive, initially to provide daily credit-derivative pricing. IHS Inc. originated in 1959 as Information Handling Services, an engineering-document microfilm company. Both grew through decades of acquisition — IHS into energy, automotive, and maritime data; Markit into indices, trade processing, and private-market analytics — before their 2016 combination.
What was IHS Markit's scale at the time of the S&P Global acquisition?
In its final full fiscal year before the deal, IHS Markit reported revenue of roughly $4.4 billion and employed approximately 16,000 people globally (per the firm, 2021). The purchase price of $44 billion in S&P Global stock reflected a significant premium and valued the combined entity at roughly $140 billion in market capitalization at announcement.
Is IHS Markit still operating independently?
No. Following the February 2022 close of the acquisition by S&P Global, the IHS Markit brand was retired. Its operations were folded into S&P Global Market Intelligence and S&P Global Commodity Insights. Products like the PMI surveys and iBoxx indices continue under the S&P Global brand.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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