Gusbourne Regulatory News (GUS)

26 Jan 2006 08:00

GUS PLC26 January 2006 26 January 2006 GUS plc Acquisition of ClarityBlue by Experian GUS plc, the retail and business services group, today announces that Experianhas acquired ClarityBlue, a leading provider in the UK of bespoke marketingdatabase solutions for major companies. ClarityBlue complements Experian'sexisting marketing businesses which help clients to target, acquire and retaincustomers. The purchase price is £85m plus an earn-out of up to £15m over threeyears. This has been funded from GUS' existing bank facilities. Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Experian, commented: "ClarityBlue is highly complementary to Experian's marketing information andsolutions businesses. Its addition to our existing offer will better enable usto help our clients around the world to respond more rapidly and send customersthe right message, at the right time and over the right channel. We are veryexcited about the growth opportunities available to ClarityBlue which will befurther enhanced by becoming part of Experian." Description of ClarityBlue ClarityBlue designs, builds and manages marketing databases for large companieswith millions of customers. These customers can undertake multiple transactionswith the companies often on a daily basis and through different channels.ClarityBlue helps its clients to make better-informed decisions more quicklyabout how to target and acquire new customers and retain existing customers. Itworks for financial services providers, entertainment companies, mobile phoneoperators and Internet Service Providers. Its clients include Barclaycard,BSkyB, Morgan Stanley, O2 and Orange. Founded in 1999, ClarityBlue employs 165people, primarily in the UK. When developing marketing databases for its clients, ClarityBlue uses its ownunique technology platform and analytics to integrate data and software thatbest meet its clients' needs. In particular, it can link companies' existinginformation on customers with external data sources to create a complete pictureof customer behaviour. Its key competitive advantage is that its technologyplatform is very fast and flexible, speeding up decision-making and reducing thelead time for delivering marketing campaigns. This is all supported byClarityBlue's extensive board-level consulting expertise which helps to embed itat the heart of its clients' marketing strategies and processes. Rationale for acquisition ClarityBlue has a leading position in the marketing services industry in the UK,especially in sectors such as banking and telecommunications where speed ofresponse is critical. With sales up by 25% in the current year, ClarityBlue hasfurther strong organic growth opportunities, selling more to existing clientsand attracting new clients in a broad range of sectors including retail andtelecommunications. Experian expects to accelerate this growth. For example, ClarityBlue will beable to embed more easily Experian's existing marketing data and solutions, suchas demographic profiling, e-mail delivery and optimisation, in its offer toclients. In addition, the ClarityBlue technology platform complements Experian'sexisting offer in the US, opening up new markets such as serving mid-sizedcompanies, many of whom are already clients of Experian for other services. There will also be cost savings of several million pounds in areas such as dataprocessing, data purchasing and technology. In the year to July 2006, sales are expected to be about £30m (an increase ofover 25% year-on-year) with EBIT of about £5m. This excludes any expectedrevenue or cost synergies. Enquiries GUSDavid Tyler Group Finance Director 020 7495 0070Fay Dodds Director of Investor Relations FinsburyRupert Younger 020 7251 3801Rollo Head GUS announcements are available on www.gusplc.com. Certain statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements.Such statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number ofrisks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differmaterially from any expected future events or results referred to in theseforward-looking statements. About ClarityBlue ClarityBlue, the customer intelligence specialist, designs, builds and operateshigh-performance customer data environments that link complex internal andexternal data sources to build a rich picture of customer behaviour. This isused to predict, and allows clients to manage, the future behaviour of itscustomers. ClarityBlue's key competitive advantage is that it does this atspeed, because of its powerful combination of strategic thinking, a configurabledirect marketing platform, precision analytics and exceptional processingcapability. For more information go to www.clarityblue.com. About Experian Marketing ClarityBlue will form part of Experian's Marketing Services division, a leadingprovider of direct marketing solutions in the UK, US and Continental Europe. Thedivision includes companies such as QAS, a leading address management softwaredeveloper, and CheetahMail, a leading provider of e-mail marketing and webanalytics solutions. The Marketing Services division provides a wide range ofsolutions that enable organisations to acquire and retain customers, improve thequality of customer data for marketing purposes and enhance the value ofcustomer relationships. For more information, visit www.experian.com. This information is provided by RNS The company news service from the London Stock Exchange