Media General sells financial services unit to new co. formed by VS&A Comm.

Newspaper and television station owner Media General (Richmond, VA) has sold its Media General Financial Services, Inc. (MGFS) unit to CenterPoint Data, Inc. (Washington, D.C.), a new company formed by management and VS&A Communications Partners III (New York), a private equity fund affiliated with Veronis Suhler Stevenson. No terms of the deal were given.

MGFS is a financial data publisher offering fundamental and technical information on over 12,000 publicly traded U.S. and Canadian companies, over 200 industry groups, and major markets in the U.S. and worldwide. Its databases carry annual and quarterly financial information, split-adjusted price and volume data, earnings estimates, institutional and insider statistics, and a variety of financial and performance ratios. Its products are targeted to institutional investors, major corporations, academics, and individual investors.

The acquired company will be used by VS&A Comm. Partners as a platform for growth in the financial information industry. The purchase is "the first step in creating a significant independent provider of global financial data," VSS general partner Scott Troeller said. "MGFS represents a highly attractive platform from which to grow both organically and through selective acquisitions in a sector populated by numerous independent data providers that, if combined, could benefit greatly from cross-selling opportunities and cost synergies."