Category: News

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Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) has acquired IXI Corp., a McLean, Va.-based provider of consumer wealth and asset data, for $124 million in cash. IXI raised just over $9 million in 2004 and 2005, from Blue Chip Venture Co., Core Capital Partners, eCentury Capital Partners and Equifax.

PRESS RELEASE

Core Capital Partners, a leading venture capital firm that invests in high-growth technology companies, today announced that Equifax Inc. (NYSE:EFX) acquired data analytics provider, IXI Corporation, the market leader in delivering consumer wealth and asset data and the only company to directly measure wealth. Equifax paid $124 million in cash for the company, which just made Deloitte’s 2009 Technology Fast 500 list.

With its proprietary measures of wealth, assets, income, spending and other data, IXI helps its clients – who include the nation’s leading banks, brokerage firms, and insurance companies – better segment households, resulting in improved marketing and customer management. IXI’s data, sourced through more than 95 banks, brokerages and other entities, is the most comprehensive database of invested and deposited consumer wealth in the country. IXI data represents more than $10 trillion in U.S. consumer assets or 42 percent of all U.S. consumer invested assets.

“We initially invested in IXI because we saw tremendous value in blending the nation’s best wealth information dataset with cutting-edge software into unique, high margin offerings,” said Will Dunbar, managing director of Core Capital Partners. “IXI provides relevant data while allowing companies to tie back to assets already under management and quantify growth opportunities. We believed this technology would be extremely attractive to a company such as Equifax, which is why we have supported the company and its management team early on.”

Core Capital Partners provided some of IXI’s earliest financing by participating in a 2004 $2 million round of financing. Early on, the firm saw the potential in marrying the company’s unique data analytics capabilities with a larger, more experienced company such as Equifax.

“Core has been a tremendous partner, helping us become a true market leader and guiding us in establishing partnerships that led to this acquisition,” said IXI’s President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Dailey. “Today, IXI counts among its client base over 100 of the Fortune 500 and all three major credit card companies. More importantly, as we’ve navigated that growth path, Will Dunbar has provided invaluable board-level leadership.”

The IXI acquisition will enable Equifax to enhance the caliber and breadth of intelligence and data offered while also improving clients’ opportunities for acquiring, expanding and retaining customers.

 

About Core Capital Partners

Core Capital is a leading venture capital firm headquartered in downtown Washington, D.C. With approximately $350 million under management, Core invests in early-stage information technology and communications infrastructure, application software, and technology-enabled services companies led by seasoned entrepreneurs. Core’s partners have been active investors for over 23 years and provide exceptional insight into government purchasing and policy.

Since its formation in 1999, Core has created in excess of $1.5 billion in enterprise value through the initial public offerings and mergers and acquisition exits of its companies. Representative investments include Sourcefire (NASDAQ: FIRE), SwapDrive (acquired by Symantec), IXI Corporation (acquired by Equifax), SilverStorm (acquired by QLogic), Roundbox, Twisted Pair Solutions, and Infinite Power Solutions. To learn more, please visit www.core-capital.com.

About Equifax Inc.

Equifax empowers businesses and consumers with information they can trust. A global leader in information solutions, we leverage one of the largest sources of consumer and commercial data, along with advanced analytics and proprietary technology, to create customized insights that enrich both the performance of businesses and the lives of consumers.

With a strong heritage of innovation and leadership, Equifax continuously delivers innovative solutions with the highest integrity and reliability. Businesses – large and small – rely on us for consumer and business credit intelligence, portfolio management, fraud detection, decisioning technology, marketing tools, and much more. We empower individual consumers to manage their personal credit information, protect their identity, and maximize their financial well-being.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, Equifax Inc. operates in the U.S. and 14 other countries throughout North America, Latin America and Europe. Equifax is a member of Standard & Poor’s (S&P) 500® Index. Our common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EFX.

About IXI Corporation

For over 15 years, IXI has helped the nation’s leading financial services and consumer marketing firms optimize marketing efforts, manage risk, identify growth markets, and enhance practice and performance management. IXI’s analytics solutions enable marketing, sales, and risk management executives to differentiate and target consumer households based on measures of wealth, income, spending, credit, investment style, share-of-wallet, and share-of-market.

Through its exclusive network of more than 95 leading U.S. financial institutions, IXI directly measures approximately $10 trillion in U.S. consumer assets and investments, comprising over 42% of all U.S. invested assets. IXI combines its patented process for collecting and classifying consumer asset data with proprietary measures of income, spending, and credit, to create the most reliable and granular financial database available today. Using this unrivalled database, IXI builds solutions that provide firms financial and economic insight for every U.S. household.

IXI is a privately held company headquartered in McLean, Virginia. It was recently named to the Deloitte Technology Fast 500 list.

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After months of leaks, teasing and previews, yesterday was the first day that Verizon Wireless started selling the BlackBerry Storm2. Available on a 2-year contract for $179.99 after rebates (or $539.00 contract free), the Storm2 intentionally regrettably has been released on the very same day both Verizon and Motorola took the wraps off of the DROID. Verizon and RIM were at least kind enough to include it in their latest BOGO campaign, though. Sure, the BOGO sale lets you get other devices like the Tour and MiFi 2200, but let’s be honest here — people are going to be picking up a second Storm2 and putting it on eBay post-haste. So what say you, “Storm chasers”? Are you going to be pursuing this weather system or sitting it out?

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Remember GateHouse Media? The regional news company sued the NY Times for linking to it, claiming it was copyright infringement to include the headline and a brief snippet along with the link (you know, like Google…). Amusingly, it turned out that GateHouse Media was doing the same thing. Eventually the two companies settled, and apparently that’s convinced GateHouse Media that complaining about such links is a good idea.

Via CitMediaLaw we found out that GateHouse Media has sent a cease & desist letter to an online forum, claiming not just that its stories are covered by copyright, but that its headlines and ledes.

We wish to advise you that the stories, headlines and/or ledes that you are copying are the copyrighted property of GateHouse Media… and that your copying constitutes infringement of GateHouse’s rights under U.S. Copyright law. This infringement is not excused by links to the original stories or by indicating the name of the publication in which the content originated.

Of course, it’s not clear that copyright law actually agrees with that. And, even if GateHouse is correct, this makes no sense whatsoever. It’s not as if people reading the Masscops forums are doing so as a substitute for some GateHouse Media news sites. If anything, Masscops is sending traffic to them, and helping new readers discover GateHouse’s sites. What sort of company turns down links and traffic? Not one that’s long for this world…

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Jeezum crow! This guy has made a fully functional (kind of) Proton Pack from Ghostbusters including a trap, ecto goggles, and some coveralls. He added a few lights controlled by an Arduino board.

The best part? He added lasers to the blasters. Now he just needs to remember not to cross the beams and that your halloween party can be a promotional expense so you should invite clients instead of friends.

The instructions are, obviously, at Instructables.

Reader Anthony Le sent in his entry for the costume contest and I just had to share it with you guys. It’s an amazing replica of the Iron Man XD suit made of plastic and rivets. Anthony even goes to his local Children’s Hospital in it to cheer up the kids. Anthony is a truly geek who inspires awe.

I based the build from this picture from comic-con. The Costume is 100% home made, the build took approximately 2 weeks and 5 days. I’m a very busy person as well! Over 700+ rivets and rivet washer used. All items on the costume are 100% made from scratch. I’ve lso taken this costume to the children’s hospital to give them a sense of joy to know that a hero has come to wishes them a happy Halloween.

build materials
-High impact urethane plastic
-700+ rivets and washer used
-heat gun
-hot glue gun
-boat load of hot glue sticks
-Open flip helmet “like Ironman movie”
-lighted chest R-T and replusor gloves “like the movie”
-flexible abdominal area, and join covers.
-voice changer in helmet “when spoken into, makes me sound like a robot”

“Democratic Senators in favor of including a public insurance option in health care reform expect resistant moderates … to come around once they see the details of the final legislation,” Roll Call reports. Centrists such as Sen. Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., have suggested that they may not support reform with a public option. “Senate Democratic Conference Vice Chairman Charles Schumer (N.Y.) said Wednesday that moderates are likely to climb on board once they read the final bill” (Drucker, 10/28).

ABC News: “When majority leader [Harry] Reid put the controversial ‘public option’ back on the table this week, he did so confident that Lieberman, short of outright supporting it, would at least allow it to pass. [But] Lieberman dropped a bombshell when [he] announced he would not vote” to move forward on a health reform bill that includes a government-run health plan (Schutzman, 10/28).

CBS News: Meanwhile, “Sen. Evan Bayh, a moderate Democrat from Indiana, said Wednesday that he may not be able to support a motion to proceed with the health care debate on the Senate floor, depending on what is included in the bill Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) brings forward.” Bayh said he was “less focused” on the public option, but was worried “a couple elements” in the bill could raise premiums for families with insurance (Condon, 10/28).

Chicago Tribune: Democratic leaders are also creating some friction on the left. The White House recently dispatched health care adviser Nancy-Ann DeParle to meet with Sen. Roland Burris of Illinois. “It signals that the White House is not taking for granted the support of Burris” for the health-reform bill. He has called for an even broader government-run plan than Senate Democratic leaders offered (Skiba, 10/29).

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the JRC’s Institute for Energy (IE) strengthened their ongoing collaboration yesterday with the official signing of a ‘Practical Arrangement’ which will allow both partners to further develop scientific and technical co-operation in the fields of nuclear safety, nuclear technology and energy planning issues.

In practical terms this will result in increased support of JRC-IE to the IAEA, enhanced co-operation and co-ordination of their mutual activities in the field of energy policy support.

Kaiser Health News offers a fresh look at health policy developments with David Fitzsimmons’ “Vampire Bat.”

Kaiser Health News staff writer Julie Appleby reports on how the fine print of the Senate Finance Committee’s health bill could impact some lower- and middle-class consumers. Proponents of the measure “say the legislation will limit the amount that lower- and middle-income people must pay for health insurance to a maximum of 12 percent of their incomes. But there’s a catch: The fine print shows that, over time, the premium costs could rise well beyond those caps. That’s because the cost of coverage would shift from a percentage of income to a percentage of the premium, no matter how high the premiums go” (10/29). Read entire story.

In less than 72 hours, the GreenGov Challenge will come to a close – so if you’re a federal employee or one of our brave men and women in uniform, you don’t have much time left to share your clean energy ideas and vote for your favorites.  To lead the Challenge out with a bang, Vice President Joe Biden recorded this special message just for you.  Take a look:

As the Vice President says, “We’re counting on you to help us meet our goals, to help us set the right example, and to help us make our government as clean and green as possible.“ Take the GreenGov Challenge today and help green our government!

The Medical Device Manufacturers Association is starting a $200,000 radio and print ad campaign aimed at stopping Congress from imposing more than $40 billion in taxes on their goods, Roll Call reports.  “The spots have been placed in Capitol Hill publications, including Roll Call, Congressional Quarterly and Politico, as well as on local news radio station WTOP. The ads claim that patients and innovation will suffer if Congress goes through with imposing the tax. The Senate Finance Committee’s health care bill included $40 billion in levies on the devices over 10 years” (Roth, 10/29).

Obama administration officials are working to control the H1N1 flu message after shortages have forced many to wait for the swine flu vaccine.

The Washington Post reports that the message they are pushing is that “despite shortages, the program has been more successful than expected in some ways and that millions of doses are quickly becoming available.” Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius held a briefing for reporters where they asked for patience. “Officials had projected that as many as 120 million doses of vaccine would be available by now, but later downgraded that projection to 40 million and then 28 million. So far, 23.3 million doses have become available” (Stein, 10/29).

USA Today: “The rate of vaccine production was lower than manufacturers had hoped because the virus’ growth rate was slower than expected, [Napolitano] said: ‘We were getting some pretty rosy scenarios, and not until growth began did we know for sure.’ Now vaccine companies have had time to switch to faster-growing strains, so production is more robust. Nine million doses were produced in the past seven days, and ‘the pace is picking up,’ she said” (Weise, 10/28).

The shortage represents a political test for Obama, The New York Times reports. “The shortage, caused by delays in the vaccine manufacturing process, has put the president in exactly the situation he sought to avoid — one in which questions are being raised about the government’s response. … Now, with officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reporting that H1N1 is widespread in 46 states, public health experts and leading senators are giving the Obama administration only mixed grades” (Stolberg, 10/28).

Facebook has released a developer "roadmap," which it says will simplify communication for users and developers, improve app discovery and engagement, and provide developers with more comprehensive tools for building or expanding their business with Facebook.

"Through these new APIs and tools, we are giving all developers building with Facebook and those in our largest application category — gaming — new ways to attract and engage users," says Facebook’s Ethan Beard.

Facebook is giving developers access to user email addresses, and it is focusing Facebook communication on the stream and the inbox. "This consolidates developer and user communication into the two most powerful channels — stream and Inbox — and provides new features to help users stay engaged with applications," says Beard. "User-to-user communications commonly in the notifications and requests channels will be moved to the Inbox."

Some Facebook app developers aren’t thrilled with Facebook’s upcoming platform changes. "The so-called social games on the site are bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in yearly revenue and the market is expanding rapidly,"

explains Lucian Parfeni at Softpedia. "But one of the reasons for the expansion is the amount of spammy messages and notifications they have come to rely on and Facebook is now looking to put an end to that."

"The notification and request channels will now be integrated in the Inbox and will lose their dedicated spots on the homepage. This is one of the most disruptive changes for apps as many relied on notifications to drive traffic up. " adds Parfeni.

Some Facebook app developers have found their businesses disrupted by the changes not only to the Facebook platform, but by the recent redesign of Facebook’s home page, which separates the news feed and the live feed. Before, when it was one, everybody saw all of the instances of their friends using apps. Now, they don’t see them as much, and developers are finding that their apps are not getting as many new users.

But Facebook says it is also working on ways to improve application discovery and engagement. Facebook doesn’t want apps to suffer. Improvements will come in the form of simplified navigation, prominent new dashboards, and a new Counter channel.

"To make it easier for users to quickly find and engage with applications, their favorite apps will be featured on their home page with bookmarks and new dashboards," explains Beard. "Applications will also be represented on canvas pages with a format that increases brand association with users. In addition, users will be able to better represent applications on their profile following short-term changes that include focusing profile integration on application tabs, as well as removing profile boxes, the info section of boxes, and the Boxes tab."

The counter channel will allow app developers to prompt users when they need to perform an action within an application.

Related Articles:

> Facebook Developers’ Business Models Threatened or Maintained?

> Facebook eCommerce May Have to Clear Security Obstacle

> Over 50 Million Facebook Users Related to Somebody

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If you long for the ability to watch high definition TV on a seven-inch screen that’s resolution is a mere 480×234 but you also want to have the option to watch standard definition DVD’s as well, then here’s your next purchase.

According to Hammacher Schlemmer, this is “The First Portable HDTV And DVD Player.”

Will it be the last? Probably not.

This one, however, costs a whopping $300 and features two hours of battery life for HDTV watching or 2.5 hours for DVD playback. You can also view pictures and video files using the built-in memory card reader.

The digital tuner supports broadcasts in 720p and you’ll have to bring along the included “sensitive external antenna” in order to reel them in.

The First Portable HDTV And DVD Player [Hammacher Schlemmer]

The nation’s ailing economy continues to affect insurance companies, which could also face a wave of costly COBRA claims as policyholders rush to get treatment before government subsidies expire.

The Associated Press reports: “The government’s effort to help workers keep health benefits after they lose a job could wind up costing WellPoint Inc. and other insurers dearly in the fourth quarter. Indianapolis-based WellPoint said Wednesday it expects a spike in claims from a money-draining customer segment that includes people who continue their employer-sponsored insurance coverage under the federal law known as COBRA. Many insurers already face declining enrollment and rising costs related to swine flu cases. The expected jump in COBRA-related claims would make a bad situation worse.”

“All these factors likely will contribute to future rate increases. Insurers normally lose money on COBRA enrollment because the people who keep their coverage generally do so because they need it for ongoing treatments or illness. WellPoint, for instance, spends between $1.50 and $2 on claims for every dollar it collects in premiums. Healthy people often pass on the coverage, which can be too expensive for someone who just lost a job, or they only sign up for it when they need treatment. People have 60 days after being laid off to enroll in COBRA. Earlier this year, the federal government started offering temporary subsidies that pay 65 percent of the cost of COBRA coverage. The first wave of those subsidies will start expiring in the fourth quarter. WellPoint officials expect an increase in claims as customers cram in as much health care as they can while they still have coverage” (Murphy, 10/28). 

NPR explores the reasons for the high rates of HIV/AIDS infection among black women: “African-Americans, who only make up 1+2 percent of the U.S. population, account for nearly half of those living with HIV. More specifically, black women represent 61 percent of the new HIV cases among all women. The popular suspicion has been that many infected black women have contracted the virus from their black male companions, who secretly have sex with other men (also known as the ‘down low’). But a new study shows that correlation is flawed. Dr. Kevin Fenton, of the Centers for Disease Control, explains the misconception and talks about prevention.” Fenton discusses the relationship of various factors including incarceration, multiple sex partners, unprotected sex and drug use and HIV-infection (Martin, 10/28).

The Washington Post reports: “China’s health-care system is in disarray, a side effect of the market reforms that have spurred private enterprise and rapid growth since 1980. Before then, state-owned companies offered cradle-to-grave care, part of a system based on danwei, or work units, that provided health, education, pensions and other benefits. But as the economy has grown more diverse, an increasing number of Chinese have had to fend for themselves, with only a porous government insurance program to help.”

Like the U.S., China is trying to fix its ailing health care system. “Over the past five years, the government has tried to provide coverage to more of its 1.4 billion people. But even people covered by a minimal health insurance program are often left with big hospital bills and must pay for most outpatient services and medication. More than 300 million people do not have any health insurance.” In addition, “the gap in the quality of care has been steadily growing, too. Peking University People’s Hospital, for example, has computerized charts, GE scanners, top-flight doctors and a deluxe ward where the wealthy can pay extra for private suites. But community clinics in most cities or rural areas tend to be understaffed and poorly equipped” (Mufson, 10/29).