Deal: Pinsent Masons has announced the sale of its online compliance solutions business, Cerico, to Dow Jones.

Value: Undisclosed

Area: M&A

Key players: Pinsent Masons senior partner Richard Foley led the team on this transaction.

Deal significance: Cerico is the international law firm’s online compliance solutions business. Pinsent Masons launched the business in 2013 as part of a joint venture with IT consultancy Campbell Nash. It took a majority stake in 2015.

Since its development, Cerico has been utilised for many international businesses, including FTSE 100 and FTSE 250 companies.

The sale of Pinsent Masons’ Cerico to business and financial information firm Dow Jones will see Pinsent Masons retain a strategic relationship with Dow Jones, “through which it will continue to provide the legal content for compliance solutions and deliver supplementary legal compliance support and consultancy to Dow Jones clients where required,” according to a statement.

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Commenting further on the transaction, Pinsent Masons senior partner Richard Foley said the firm is proud with what it has achieved with Cerico.

“It has proven an immense success with our clients, and further highlighted our ability to combine people, process and technology to create innovative solutions in the world of new law,” he said.

“As the business has moved toward its next phase of growth, it has been clear that it will need to integrate with a wider range of business and financial data to support the full range of client need. In that respect, Dow Jones is the perfect partner to ensure that Cerico achieves its full potential.

“We very much look forward to working with the Dow Jones team in future to the benefit of our mutual clients.”

Meanwhile, Chris Lloyd, head of professional information business at Dow Jones, said:

“Cerico is a best-in-class, end-to-end compliance and regulatory solution that is an excellent fit for Dow Jones as we move further into offering fully integrated solutions for our clients.

“Combined with Pinsent Masons expertise in this area, we now have a unique and holistic offering to take to the market.”