EDGAR Filing Distributor Signs Deals With Reuters and S&P

Partes Corporation has signed two new clients-Standard & Poor's Compustat and Reuters America-to its FreeEDGAR.com service. The service provides a real-time data feed of processed EDGAR filings that enables market data providers to incorporate EDGAR data into their Web pages. The feed is formatted to have a similar look and feel to the client's Web site, and is more easily read and sorted once formatted by Partes. The firm's main competitor TRW, provides a direct feed that is not formatted, a Partes spokesman notes. The FreeEDGAR service also allows the filings to be archived and provides a watch list service with e-mail alerts for targeted company filings.

Standard & Poor's is using Partes' EDGAR Data Service to provide EDGAR filings in real time for its Market Insight service, a subscription-based research service providing real-time, browser-based access to company, industry and country information compiled. Although S&P did offer a service where clients could buy EDGAR filings on CDs before signing this agreement, this is the first time S&P has fully incorporated EDGAR filings into its market coverage, says Jay McCormick, director of consulting products with S&P Investment Services. The firm likes the way S&P parses the data, with the ability to immediately download the data into Excel, which was one of the reasons S&P chose Partes, McCormick adds. Furthermore, the vendor has helped S&P develop an interface and proper firewalls in preparation for the release of the product. The service went live in August.

McCormick declines comment on the payment structure except to say that the arrangement is similar to a royalty agreement. He notes that S&P clients do have to pay for the added service. McCormick would not comment on the other vendors that were considered. McCormick notes that the decision to offer the service was client-driven. "Some clients asked for it, but we like to anticipate the needs of all our clients and knew there would be demand for it," McCormick adds. Officials with Reuters could not be reached by press time.

A spokesman for Partes-which in July changed its name to FreeEDGAR.com, says Reuters will incorporate the data into Reuters' financial information products and its historical databases.