S&P Global to buy IHS Markit in all-stock deal worth $44bn

US rating agency's takeover of London-based market data firm will be year's biggest corporate acquisition

US rating agency S&P Global is to buy London-based market data and research company IHS Markit in an all-stock deal worth $44bn (33bn) that will be the biggest corporate acquisition of 2020.

The deal, which IHS Markit's chief executive, Lance Uggla, told employees in a memo had been in the works for the last few months, will create a heavyweight in the increasingly competitive market in financial information. It highlights the growing importance of big data in financial markets governed by information-hungry trading algorithms.