Morningstar To Launch Canadian Venture; New Business to Continue International Growth in Investment Information.

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 1999--

Morningstar, Inc., the leading investment-information services firm, has acquired Toronto, Canada-based Portfolio Analytics Limited (PAL), Morningstar CEO Don Phillips and PAL President and COO Eric Hogg, announced today. PAL will become Morningstar Canada, the latest in a series of international ventures for Morningstar and its first in North America. Other ventures include operations in Japan, Australia, and New Zealand, and a licensing agreement in Sweden.

"We respect the PAL leadership in the marketplace and believe that their philosophy in putting the interests of the individual investor first is an excellent match with Morningstar," said Phillips. "Canada has gone through tremendous change in the last few years, with the rapid expansion of its stock and mutual fund industries, and we think this is the right time to be there."

As part of the new company's business strategy, Morningstar Canada will expand PAL's existing financial-services product line to provide tools and analysis for individual investors. This emphasis on individual investors is a new initiative for PAL, which had previously provided products for financial professionals.

The company will continue to offer PALTrak software, which delivers asset-allocation, performance, and risk-return analysis on more than 3,000 Canadian mutual funds, as well as consulting services for financial professionals in Canada. In addition, Morningstar Canada will develop a new investment-information Web site for individual investors.

The Web site, scheduled to launch in 2000, will provide a full range of analytical tools, as well as timely, unbiased research and commentary for the individual investor. The site will also apply the proprietary Morningstar Rating system to Canadian funds.

"We hope Morningstar Canada can play an important role by providing the same kind of unbiased, reliable, and timely information we use in our operations in America to help individual investors make better investment decisions," added Phillips.

"Morningstar Canada will become a multichannel information provider and will use the Internet as a key vehicle for providing individual investors with information products that were formerly available only to investment professionals," said Hogg. "The individual is where the power is going in the investment process. We want to meet the demand of individual investors to use the information tools they need to make intelligent choices. At the same time, the need for professionals to serve their clients with greater speed and sophistication and a wider range of products must be delivered," Hogg added.

About Morningstar Canada

Morningstar Canada, formerly Portfolio Analytics Limited, is Canada's leading investment fund research and analysis company, providing unbiased information to the financial-services industry through a range of products and services. The popular PALTrak software provides in-depth analysis on more than 3,000 mutual and pooled funds.

About Morningstar

Chicago-based Morningstar, Inc. is an independent provider of the most reliable, unbiased investment information available. The company's extensive line of Internet, software, and print services offers news, data, and analysis on stocks, mutual funds, closed-end funds, and variable annuities. Morningstar.com (http://www.morningstar.com) is listed among the top investing sites by such publications as The Wall Street Journal, Barron's, SmartMoney, Money, Worth, and Kiplinger's Personal Finance, and is also named among the top 50 Web sites by CIO magazine. Morningstar also provides investment information for such leading Internet sites as Microsoft Money Central, Quicken.com, America Online, CNBC.com, AARP, Yahoo! Finance, Alta Vista Company, Netscape Personal Finance Channel, Schwab, and T. Rowe Price. Morningstar does not own, operate, or hold any interest in investment products.