The Advisors' Blog

This blog features wisdom from respected compensation consultants and lawyers

March 13, 2014

ISS Sold? Private-Equity “Insight Venture” Is Likely Auction Winner

Broc Romanek, CompensationStandards.com

As noted in this WSJ article: “Investor adviser Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. is set to change hands for the third time in seven years, according to people familiar with the matter, amid debate about the firm’s sway over governance in corporate America.

Insight Venture Partners, a New York private-equity and venture-capital firm that was an early investor in Twitter Inc., is the likely winner of an auction of ISS run by current owner MSCI Inc., people familiar with the matter said Monday. Terms of the potential deal and its timing couldn’t be learned. People close to the sales process had said earlier that ISS could fetch around $300 million, which would be considerably less than it has sold for in the past.”

And here is a Fortune article about how the new owner would manage ISS’ conflicts…