NEW YORK, March 30, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- TheMarkets.com, a leading provider of research, estimates and workflow solutions to the buy-side, today announced global staff expansion and product and customer service enhancements made throughout 2009. TheMarkets.com offers a suite of products used by over 2400 investment management firms in 51 countries for global research and other company and industry content, corporate access management, and broker voting.

Key product enhancements during 2009 include:

- Launched an Application Programming Interface (API) that enables clients to customize their internal systems using TheMarkets.com's proprietary search technology and research from its hundreds of global providers - Created an end-to-end consulting service for clients who want to build or enhance a custom research application through the use of APIs - Quadrupled the number of brokers delivering content directly to TheMarkets.com's research platform, surpassing the landmark of 700 direct contributors

By leveraging API technologies, buy-side firms can select only the content and functionality that add value to their investment processes, rather than buying a pre-configured solution that may include unnecessary content or functionality. We've seen a surge in demand for applications that are completely customized to a firm's investment workflow, said David Eisner, CEO and President of TheMarkets.com. To help our clients benefit from the economic advantages of customization, we focused on expanding our content offering, while also building up our internal capabilities to develop these solutions in partnership with clients.

Sales inquiries to TheMarkets.com from outside the United States more than tripled during 2009. As a result, TheMarkets.com doubled its client service staff in its London office to answer the growing demand. While we remain focused on building best-of-breed products, we continue to hear from clients that our unparalleled customer service sets us apart from other options in the marketplace, said Eisner. The Company added client training and service staff, enhanced its local language support, and now offers in-person training anywhere in the world.

John McClain, Vice President of Credit at Standard Life Investments, and a customer of TheMarkets.com, said, The client service staff at TheMarkets.com differentiates itself by being proactive, knowledgeable about our needs, and willing to go the extra mile. From the outset, they reached out to us to make sure we were comfortable with the product, and able to use it to its fullest capabilities. When you consider the breadth of content available on the product, individual attention to make sure we're able to find what we need adds a lot of value and saves us time.

Eisner said, During a time when many others in our industry experienced flat or negative growth, our business continued to grow, as we focused our attention on serving our existing customers and building for the future. We developed customized product and service solutions, enhanced our customer service and support, and built our product line to better serve our clients' needs. Thanks to this back-to-basics focus, December of 2009 was our best month of new sales since December of 2007, a critical marker we have been looking for as an indicator of continued growth in the future.

About TheMarkets.com

TheMarkets.com is an award-winning provider of research, estimates, and workflow solutions to over 2400 institutional investment management firms worldwide. TheMarkets.com is owned by: Bank of America Merrill Lynch , Citi , Credit Suisse , Deutsche Bank , The Goldman Sachs Group , JPMorgan Chase , Morgan Stanley , UBS Investment Bank , and Thomson Reuters .

CONTACT: Jasmine Swann TheMarkets.com +1-212-812-4631 jswann@TheMarkets.com

SOURCE: TheMarkets.com

CONTACT: Jasmine Swann, TheMarkets.com, +1-212-812-4631,jswann@TheMarkets.com