Credit Giant Experian Acquires Florida Software Data Company
Credit and marketing data giant Experian Inc. has acquired a Florida business software company that provides direct marketing list information to small businesses.
Terms of the purchase of Serious Business Software Inc. of Tampa were not disclosed. The company will operate as a subsidiary of Experian’s Direct Tech unit.
Serious Business Software markets the residential and business “ConnX” CD-ROM products that provide home-based and other small businesses with data for compiling direct mail lists on a pay-as-you-go basis. The data are supplied online by Orange-based Experian, which has operated in partnership with Serious Business since last year.
Experian has been pushing to expand its presence in the direct marketing industry. “This acquisition is an example of our commitment,” said Tom Newkirk, deputy chairman of Direct Tech. “It fits into our worldwide view of distributing data.”
Experian also is believed to be negotiating the sale of some of its real estate data operations to Santa Ana-based title insurer First American Financial Corp., but officials from both companies refuse to comment.
Experian’s real estate division, headquartered in Anaheim, prepares data on residential and commercial real estate transactions from publicly available records around the country. The unit also tracks bankruptcies, real estate foreclosures and other economic data relevant to gauging the health of the real estate industry.
First American, which provides other real estate-related services in addition to title insurance, has a huge customer base to which it could market such data.
Separately on Wednesday, Experian said a federal judge in New Jersey has refused to hear a suit by Database America Inc. that alleged Experian was reselling the New Jersey consumer information company’s data without permission.
The court refused to grant Database America’s request for an injunction and said the dispute should be handled by an arbitrator, as specified in Experian’s contract with Database.
