VIEW-Buying opportunities from crisis

By Muralikumar Anantharaman

BOSTON (Reuters) - Morningstar believes the global financial crisis will create acquisition opportunities and a strong U.S. dollar will make it easier to buy assets overseas, the U.S. research firm's chairman and chief executive said on Thursday.

"One of the silver linings of the downturn is we are seeing more acquisition opportunities," Joe Mansueto told Reuters in a telephone interview.

"We have plenty of cash and investments on our balance sheet. I think we are in a good position to make acquisitions. With the stronger dollar, we are in an even better position today to do that overseas," Mansueto said. He declined to say if a deal was imminent.

Morningstar has been acquisitive over the past few years. In March 2007 it bought Standard & Poor's mutual fund data business for $55 million (34 million pounds). In January it acquired a data, media and investor relations website businesses from Ipreo Holdings LLC for $51.6 million in cash.

It has also made two smaller buys in the past three months.

Those purchases partly helped Morningstar, best known for its system of rating mutual fund performance, report an 11.6 percent rise in third-quarter profit on Thursday.

Net income for the quarter rose to $22.2 million, or 45 cents a share, from $19.9 million, or 41 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. But the earnings fell below analysts' expectations of 51 cents on average for the quarter and were down from the 57 cents earned in the second quarter.

"A company like Morningstar needs positive equity markets. Given the challenges in the last quarter, it's easy to see the weakness," said Murali Gopal, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods.