Bloomberg, Markit Agree Distribution Deal For EDM Businesses

Data vendors Bloomberg and Markit have agreed to distribute one another's reference and pricing data through the managed service offerings of their respective enterprise data management (EDM) businesses, Bloomberg PolarLake and Markit EDM.

The deal will enable customers to avoid data acquisition, management and distribution work when consuming data from either vendor. It will see Bloomberg PolarLake's customers benefit from easy access to Markit's strong credit default swap pricing and index data offerings; while Markit EDM's clients will enjoy easy access to Bloomberg's respected reference data offerings. To access the data, consumers will still be required to contract directly with the relevant data vendor.

John Randles, Bloomberg PolarLake's Dublin-based chief executive officer, said the deal will reduce complexity for his company's customers. "We can manage the acquisition, the management and the distribution of that data on behalf of clients," said Randles. "It also removes the complexity of dealing with day-to-day vendor issues, timing issues, issues around change of feed format, validation, day-on-day comparisons."

Markit is the tenth vendor whose data is distributed via Bloomberg PolarLake's managed service. Randles said the decision to include Markit was driven by customer demand, explaining that it is important to offer a broad choice of data in order to "add to the credibility of our managed service offering."

Randles added: "We really see EDM as something that is truly multi-vendor—you can't have a single vendor approach to EDM—and Markit was an obvious candidate to come on board on the platform."

Daniel Simpson, London-based managing director and head of enterprise software at Markit, said Markit EDM was keen to distribute Bloomberg's data via its managed service offering because, "certainly around reference data, Bloomberg is clearly one of the top suppliers."

Simpson said he believes customers and the vendors involved will benefit from the deal. He does not think either of the EDM vendors has gained a competitive advantage over the other. "If you look at the data that is going in now, it is by and large complementary," said Simpson. "So I think it is a win for customers because they can have the combined data set."

According to Simpson, the deal was initiated by Markit EDM and Bloomberg PolarLake, but quickly involved the data divisions of Markit and Bloomberg. Randles said the agreement involved "a lot of discussion over a long time."

In addition to Bloomberg data, Simpson said Markit EDM currently distributes data from SIX Financial Information and "a couple of smaller vendors." He said Markit EDM hopes to begin distributing data from other vendors before the end of the year. "We are in on-going conversations with all of the usual suspects," he explained. "I would hope we would have everybody on board by the end of the year."