Nathaniel Rodwell-Simon

The University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business

UChicago is set to close the $375 million sale of its Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) to Morningstar, a Chicago-based investment firm, by the end of 2025. The sale, announced on September 23, comes as the University’s finances have been under increasing strain, but CRSP’s chair said the decision was unrelated to broader financial issues in an interview with the Maroon.

CRSP, founded at UChicago in 1960 and known in the financial sector as the first database of historical stock market data, currently provides data for hundreds of subscribers internationally and maintains its own stock indexes linked to $3 trillion in assets. The Center generates nearly $55 million in revenue annually.

CRSP data helped inform the work of Booth professor Eugene Fama (M.B.A. ‘63, Ph.D. ‘64), who won a Nobel Prize in 2013.

The University ran a budget deficit of roughly $288 million in fiscal year (FY) 2024—a figure that has substantially increased since 2022. It also carries a higher ratio of debt relative to its endowment than many of its peers. The University announced an effort to cut $100 million in spending over the coming years, with pauses in admissions to Ph.D. and master’s programs between 2026 and 2027, reductions in the hiring rate of tenure-track faculty, the postponing of capital projects, and more.

The sale has attracted scrutiny from observers in the University community and the press, with speculation that the deal represents an attempt to alleviate short-term financial pressures.

“To spend a lot of money, you could borrow or you could spend your savings—the University of Chicago has actually been doing both,” said Classics professor Clifford Ando, who has written extensively about the University’s finances. “We’re in a financially very, very precarious situation, so we need cash… I think the sale of CRSP should be compared to the sudden effort we made in 2016 and 2017 to sell an enormous number of buildings, also to solve a liquidity problem.”

“It’s very hard for me to think of a justification for sale that doesn’t arise from profound weakness,” Ando continued. “If you’re strong, you don’t sell assets like that. And, in particular, you don’t sell assets like that to your patrons.”

But Madhav Rajan, dean of the Booth School of Business and chair of CRSP’s Board of Directors, told the Maroon that the sale is in the best interest of CRSP and Booth, and that the University’s finances had no bearing on the decision.

“The [University’s finances and CRSP] have nothing to do with each other,” Rajan said. “We have a fiduciary board which has to do what’s right for CRSP… We never went out to try to sell it—that was never even in the cards, but we had somebody who had an interest in it.”

Rajan said the prospect of a sale only came about when another firm indicated interest in acquiring CRSP around 18 months ago, and the process was conducted by CRSP leadership with no input from the University’s Board other than to approve the sale.

Some coverage has described the sale of CRSP—which Forbes called “one of [UChicago’s] most valuable research centers”—as embarrassing to the University. Rajan rejected those characterizations.

“If this was the CRSP from 50 years ago, [it] would be different,” Rajan said. But “that affiliation has faded over time… We don’t really think we’re losing anything. I’ve gotten [almost] zero reaction from alumni as [to] anything negative about this transaction.”

Booth will place sale proceeds into “some form of long-term investment” that would generate more than CRSP produces for the University now, Rajan said. “I think right off the bat, [profits would] be more than what we were getting from CRSP on an annual basis, which is why the deal makes sense for us.”

Rajan also said the sale will benefit CRSP, as ownership by a commercial firm will allow it to expand its services to a wider audience while benefiting from more commercial resources. “There’s only so much we can do as a not-for-profit.”

CRSP had already reorganized to become a limited liability company legally separate from Booth in 2020 to offer more competitive compensation, Rajan said.

The University hired an investment bank and an external lawyer to conduct a “completely transparent process done by people who had an interest in maximizing the money,” Rajan said. Multiple firms expressed interest and were approached to acquire CRSP, and “at the end, Morningstar continued to be interested after they did all their due diligence.”

Founded by alumnus Joe Mansueto (A.B.’78, M.B.A.’80) in 1984, Morningstar is an investment research firm that provides clients with data tools and portfolio management support. His wife, Rika (A.B. ’91), currently serves on the University’s Board of Trustees, and the Mansueto Library is named after the couple.

Though an agreement has been reached, the sale is not expected to be finalized until the end of 2025.

UChicago researchers will retain free access to CRSP databases for the next seven years, after which the University will have to pay to gain access, Rajan said.

“I think CRSP has done a lot for the University, but it’s also time that it’s owned by somebody commercially who can give it the real investment that it needs to get to the next level,” Rajan said. “The intention very much is that they will continue… to support the research community.”