McGraw Hill Financial is acquiring SNL Financial, a data analytics business that serves the financial, energy, media and real estate sectors, for $2.2B in cash.

CEO Douglas Peterson said SNL operates in MHF's world of subscription-based businesses and provides opportunities to give customers "end-to-end data solutions."

Charlottesville, Va-based SNL has about 3,000 staffers in ten countries.

New York private equity firm New Mountain Capital, which has assets of more than $15B, and former SNL managers have owned SNL for the past four years.

MHF's brands include Standard & Poor's Rating Services, Platt's, J.D. Power, S&P Capital IQ and S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Peterson anticipates synergy savings of $70M by 2019 via operational efficiencies and accelerated SNL growth on the international front.

MHF is funding the deal with $525M in cash and $1.7B in new debt. The transaction will close in the third quarter of this year.