In most ways the announcement of Quote.com's acquisition by FT Interactive Data Corporation comes as no great surprise as Quote.com has been a major client of IDC's real-time Comstock market data feeds since the days that they were part of Standard & Poor's and has offered a public face for Comstock content to many of its retail financial users. But it's perhaps also an inkling of a broader strategy that could unfold with IDC, which needs to present a far more integrated approach to financial markets. Taking the popular portal and user interface "widgets" offered by Quote.com gives IDC a good basic entry level for individual investors and the lower end of the financial advisory marketplace, which can then be used to step up users to the more sophisticated trading tools offered by IDC's eSignal division. IDC has a lot of great core financial content and a broadening array of effective delivery and display products, but you wouldn't know it looking at their very product-oriented Web site: both Comstock and eSignal appear along with CMS BondEdge only as affiliate links at the bottom of the home page. Building up eSignal as a broader interface brand is a good first step towards thinking about a broader array of services that IDC can provide to a broader financial marketplace, but until they can provide a common brand with more market identity it's likely to be a slow progression.