Bidders taking an interest in infoGroup
Jinfo Blog

16th November 2009

By Tim Buckley Owen

Item

InfoGroup’s initial reaction to reports that it might be up for sale was distinctly cautious. But now that news of possible bids is emerging, there’s informed speculation that Dun & Bradstreet may be the eventual buyer. ‘We are continually evaluating the operations and prospects for the company to determine what course is best for our shareholders’ was all that Bill Fairfield, chief executive of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company would say in response to reports in the local Omaha World-Herald that infoGroup might be up for sale. However he did add that the directors retained Evercore Partners as an independent financial adviser, and board chairman Roger Siboni added that there were ‘several options before us’ (http://digbig.com/5baqhp). Since then Reuters has relayed unattributed reports that a number of preliminary bids have been submitted, including from private equity firm Carlyle and infoGroup competitor Dun & Bradstreet. Reuters also commented that it was former CEO and chairman Vinod Gupta who originally requested that the company explore strategic alternatives, including a possible sale (http://digbig.com/5baqhq). Incorporating the business information service Hoover’s, D&B has a ‘gold standard’ reputation for its core company information listings but relatively few options for leveraging that information for greater profits, suggests John Blossom of enterprise and media content specialist Shore Communications (http://digbig.com/5baqhs). A OneSource platform that brings together a very broad array of high-quality business information sources would be a big plus, he believes (see the interview with OneSource’s Sham Sao in VIP 61 for more on this – purchase details at http://web.vivavip.com/go/shop/magazine/61). Blossom still thinks that the infoGroup bidding process could go any number of ways, including a ‘no sale’ decision. But his guess is that D&B will come out on top.

« Blog