The match between Interactive Data Corporation (IDC) and Comstock, the real-time information service that IDC bought from Standard & Poor's, the credit rating agency, this year, is expected to create a serious player in the real-time and mark-to-market data feed business.

Stuart Clark, president and chief executive of Interactive Data Corporation, says: "We had internal plans to build a Comstock of our own. S&P selling Comstock was a godsend for us; it fitted a sweet spot where we wanted to be. Now we can be a serious player in the real-time market."