NeuStar, the company that specializes in providing data insights and intelligence for web, telecommunications, entertainment, advertising and marketing companies, today announced that it has acquired TARGUSinfo (otherwise known as Targus Information Corp.) for $650 million in cash to beef up its realtime analytics and customer intelligence offerings.
NeuStar also released its third quarter financial results today, in which the company said that it expects the acquisition to add more than 20 cents a share to its earnings next year and boost annual revenue to approximately $750 million. The market also took the acquisition as a good sign of things to come for the data insights company, as shares have gone up 3 percent in extended trading today.
In a blog post today explaining the acquisition to its shareholders, the company said that it had been founded based on a mission to ensure customers that, when they move or change telephone carriers, “they could still be reached at the same number”. The company also said that, since its launch in the mid-90s it has overseen trillions of transactions and has built the “largest database of phone numbers in the world”.
Over the past two decades, NeuStar began to apply its expertise at managing large data sets to the Web, providing Web, telecom, and other industries with insight and intelligence based on both their telephone and web data. In acquiring Targus, the company can now set its sights on becoming a leading provider of decision support to its clients based on its now-compounded realtime information and analytics. Leveraging both companies’ secure information pools gives NeuStar further scale in what is becoming a fragmented and growing market.
In application, as Targus is one of the largest providers of caller ID services, NeuStar will now be able to ensure that not only will a customer retain the same number when he or she switches carriers, but that the customer will be able to verify just who in the sam heck is calling them. And so everyone wins.
The companies have a great deal of similar offerings and target comparable markets, so the acquisition seems like a win-win for both, allowing each to more quickly achieve a scale they may not have otherwise.
For more, check out NeuStar’s blog post here.