NU Online News Service, Sept. 28, 10:47 a.m.EDT

SNL Financial LC and Summit Business Mediaannounced SNL's acquisition of Highline Data, Summit'sinsurance information services unit bolstering SNL's position asthe leading U.S. insurance financial information provider acrossthe property and casualty, health and life insurance sectors.

Summit Business Media is the owner of NationalUnderwriter.

With more than twenty years as an industry leader, Highline Databrings a wealth of history and proven experience to SNL Insurance'sexisting offerings.

As part of the acquisition, Highline Data's clients will nowhave the ability to access SNL's robust financial institutionsdatabase with detailed profiles on more than 20,000 U.S. financialinstitutions, including banks and thrifts, broker and dealers,investment companies and mortgage lenders.

At the same time, Summit will retain long-term access to thesame insurance industry financial data and analysis previouslyavailable through Highline Data for use in its own products andservices.

The sale of Highline Data will have no impact on Summit'sMarketing Data Group, including Judy Diamond, Agent Media andKirschners.

"SNL has earned the trust and respect of the insurance communitythrough our commitment to accuracy, depth of coverage, clientsupport, and ever-evolving enhancements to our products, and we areexcited to be partnering with a team who shares our passion forthese values," commented Jon Wright, director of SNL Insurance, adivision of SNL.  "Highline Data is well-known for itsindustry expertise, timeliness and depth of analysis, as well asits longstanding track record of service to the industry. Themarriage of SNL and Highline Data will provide all of our clientswith thenew standard for data, features, and functionality in theinsurance information industry."

"As a primary re-distributor of U.S. regulatory insurance data,Highline Data provides valuable information on the strength of theinsurance industry and of individual companies to the industryitself, as well as to analysts and investors, making it a naturalfit within SNL's best-in-class information franchise," said AndrewL. Goodenough, president and chief executive officer of Summit.

DeSilva & Philips acted as financial advisor for Summit andSNR Denton was legal advisor. BMO Capital Markets acted asfinancial advisor for SNL and Dennis Rooker, PC was legaladvisor.  Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

SNL Financial providesfinancial information on more than 3,300 public companies and50,000 private companies in the business sectors critical to theglobal economy: banking, financial services, insurance, realestate, energy and media and communications.