CHICAGO, Oct. 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, has increased its ownership in Morningstar Korea Co., Ltd., located in Seoul, Korea. Morningstar previously held a 40 percent interest in the company and now owns approximately 80 percent of the company. Financial terms were not disclosed.

In September 2009, Morningstar acquired an ownership interest of approximately 20 percent from Seong Ryong, Ji, a private investor, who continues to own approximately 20 percent of the company. In early October, Morningstar acquired an ownership interest of approximately 20 percent from SBI Korea Holdings Co., Ltd. Jason Hee-Yuk Yoon will continue to serve as chief executive officer of Morningstar Korea.

Bevin Desmond, president of Morningstar's international division, said, "We've been providing investment data and information to the Korean market for nearly 10 years as a minority owner in Morningstar Korea. As a majority owner in the company, we'll be able to expand the range of services we can offer investors in Korea."

Morningstar Korea develops, markets, and sells products and services to assist in the analysis of financial portfolios and provides financial information and services for investments in South Korea. The company also offers a local Web site for individual investors at www.morningstar.co.kr, and consulting and advisory services through its subsidiary, Morningstar Associates Korea.

About Morningstar, Inc.

Morningstar, Inc. is a leading provider of independent investment research in North America, Europe, Australia, and Asia. The company offers an extensive line of Internet, software, and print-based products and services for individuals, financial advisors, and institutions. Morningstar provides data on nearly 325,000 investment offerings, including stocks, mutual funds, and similar vehicles, along with real-time global market data on more than 4 million equities, indexes, futures, options, commodities, and precious metals, in addition to foreign exchange and Treasury markets. The company has operations in 20 countries and minority ownership positions in companies based in two other countries.

Caution Concerning Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements as that term is used in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based on our current expectations about future events or future financial performance. Forward-looking statements by their nature address matters that are, to different degrees, uncertain, and often contain words such as "may," "could," "expect," "intend," "plan," "seek," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential," or "continue." These statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the events we discussed not to occur or to differ significantly from what we expected. For us, these risks and uncertainties include, among others, general industry conditions and competition, including the global financial crisis that began in 2007; the impact of market volatility on revenue from asset-based fees; damage to our reputation resulting from claims made about possible conflicts of interest; liability for any losses that result from an actual or claimed breach of our fiduciary duties; financial services industry consolidation; a prolonged outage of our database and network facilities; challenges faced by our non-U.S. operations; and the availability of free or low-cost investment information. A more complete description of these risks and uncertainties can be found in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008. If any of these risks and uncertainties materialize, our actual future results may vary significantly from what we expected. We do not undertake to update our forward-looking statements as a result of new information or future events.

©2009 Morningstar, Inc. All rights reserved.

MORN-C

Contacts:

Media: Margaret Kirch Cohen, 312-696-6383 or margaret.cohen@morningstar.com

Investors: Please submit questions to investors@morningstar.com or by fax to 312-696-6009.

SOURCE Morningstar, Inc.