Interactive Data to Acquire Lycos Inc.âs Quote.com Transaction Will Broaden eSignalâs Portfolio of Streaming, Real-Time Market Data Platforms for Active Traders and Create a Comprehensive Online Financial Destination BEDFORD, Mass., February 1, 2006 â Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC), a leading global provider of financial market data and analytic tools to institutional investors, active traders and individual investors, today announced a definitive agreement to acquire Quote.com® and related assets from Lycos®, Inc. for $30.0 million in cash. The acquisition is expected to close during the first quarter, subject to customary closing conditions including governmental approvals. Quote.com, also known as the Lycos Finance division, markets four distinct offerings that deliver financial content and trading tools to active traders and individual investors. These include the subscription-based QCharts⢠and LiveCharts⢠services that provide real-time streaming data and decision support tools to help active traders formulate investment strategies, as well as Quote.com, a financial news and analysis website, and Raging Bullâ¢, an online investment community and message board site. Upon completion of the transaction, the assets of Quote.com will be operated as part of Interactive Dataâs eSignal division. âThe acquisition of Quote.com represents an important step in expanding eSignalâs capabilities, content and services,â said Stuart Clark, president and chief executive officer of Interactive Data Corporation. âWith the addition of the Quote.com assets, eSignal will deliver a broader suite of services to an even wider range of active trader customers and possess an increasingly valuable family of financial portals. We believe that the combination of our acquisition of the Quote.com assets, our December 2005 acquisition of IS.Teledata AG, and the product development initiatives now in place across our organization positions us to accelerate our revenue growth in 2006 and enhance our profitability in 2007.â The addition of LiveCharts and QCharts will complement and augment eSignalâs existing portfolio of streaming, real-time market data platforms and analytical tools, and bring more than 14,500 direct subscribers to eSignal. As of September 30, 2005, eSignal reported approximately 46,000 direct subscription terminals. The combined set of websites, which will include eSignalâs recently launched MarketCenter.com and FutureSource.com, as well as Quote.com and RagingBull.com, generate an aggregate of 196 million page views per month. Interactive Data anticipates this will position eSignal to build a growing new revenue stream through online advertising. âQuote.com has become an industry leader in providing premium subscription-based charting and analysis tools, and considered to be one of the leading brands of the Lycos Network,â said Alfred Tolle, chief executive officer, Lycos, Inc. âOver the past year, however, Lycos has evolved our business to focus on digital content creation, as a destination for people to create, store and market content. Going forward, it became evident that Quote.com did not fit in with this strategy and we began looking at a better fit for Quote.com. We believe that Quote.com will enhance and complement Interactive Dataâs eSignal portfolio of offerings, and that this transaction will help ensure that Quote.comâs customers continue to receive a high level of service.â âThis acquisition will help eSignal achieve its goal of becoming the most comprehensive, flexible and easy-to-use financial information resource for active traders,â said Chuck Thompson, president of Interactive Dataâs eSignal division. âThe addition of the LiveCharts and QCharts services will further expand eSignalâs portfolio of services and tools, thereby enabling us to better address the unique needs and skill levels of both novice and more experienced traders who are seeking lower priced alternatives. At the same time, by uniting the financial websites from Quote.com and eSignal, we can create a compelling online destination for the millions of people who rely on the Internet for global financial markets information and the advertisers that target this audience. By taking advantage of our existing infrastructure and resources, we believe that we can cost-effectively and rapidly enhance the content and capabilities of these acquired services and websites.â Quote.com currently employs approximately 30 people. The majority of these people are based in Waltham, Massachusetts, with the remainder in Santa Clara, California. David Kim, Quote.comâs general manager, will continue to oversee the Quote.com assets, reporting directly to Chuck Thompson, president of eSignal. The Quote.com assets generated, on an unaudited basis, 2005 service revenue of approximately $12.7 million with total costs and expenses, excluding amortization, of approximately $9.5 million. Assuming the transaction closes during the first quarter of 2006, Interactive Data anticipates that the transaction will be earnings neutral in 2006, and through a combination of planned revenue growth and operational synergies, accretive to earnings in 2007 and beyond. Interactive Data Corporation Forward-looking and Cautionary Statements About Lycos, Inc. Lycos, Inc. (www.lycos.com) is a wholly owned subsidiary of Daum Communications Corp., a leading Internet portal and e-commerce destination in Korea with a growing presence throughout the Asian markets. Lycos, Inc. creates and operates search, community and technology lifestyle sites including Lycos.com, Hotbot.com, Wired.com, Tripod.com, Angelfire.com and Quote.com. Other Lycos products and sites include Lycos Mail, Gamesville and GetRelevant. Lycos was acquired by Korean Daum Communications Corp. in October 2004 and has its U.S. headquarters in Waltham, Massachusetts. Daum Communications Corp. is traded on the KOSDAQ: 035720, www.daum.net. About eSignal: The eSignal division (www.esignal.com) of Interactive Data Corporation is a leading global provider of financial and business information to professional and active individual investors. Building on a 20-year legacy of delivering time-sensitive financial information, eSignal provides streaming, real-time market data, news and analytics. eSignal's suite of products includes eSignal®, Advanced GETâ¢, QuoTrek®, FutureSource®, MarketCenterâ¢, and MarketCenter LIVEâ¢. About Interactive Data Corporation Interactive Data Corporation is a leading global provider of securities pricing, financial information, and analytic tools to institutional and individual investors. The Company supplies time-sensitive pricing (including evaluated pricing), dividend, corporate action, and descriptive information for more than 3.5 million securities traded around the world, including hard-to-value instruments. Many of the world's best-known financial services and software companies subscribe to the Company's services in support of their trading, analysis, portfolio management, and valuation activities. Interactive Data Corporation is headquartered in Bedford, Massachusetts. Through its branded businesses, FT Interactive Data, ComStock, CMS BondEdge, and eSignal, Interactive Data Corporation has approximately 2,100 employees in offices located in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia. Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO), an international media company, whose businesses include the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education, and the Penguin Group, owns approximately 62 percent of the outstanding common stock of Interactive Data Corporation. The FT Interactive Data business includes FT Interactive Data Corporation, a Delaware corporation. The ComStock business includes ComStock, Inc., a New York corporation. ©2006 Lycos, Inc. Lycos® is a registered trademark of Lycos, Inc. All other product or service marks mentioned herein are those of Daum Communications Corp., Lycos, Inc. or their respective owners. All rights reserved. # # #
that sucks. qcharts has been rock solid for over a year now. there goes the competition. esignal will jack up quote fees without qcharts competing with them.
I'm not a QCharts customer, but that sucks indeed, big time. ESignal was the worst data provider I ever dealt with - full stop. However, I looked into the QCharts platform (Continuum dll) and seemed technically far more solid than anything ESig ever came up with.
That's interesting. Over at the QCharts Yahoo board, it is considered unanimously to be a positive development.
You should take a look at Metastock Quotecenter which is a rebranded Bridgestation with Reuters data and Reuters news for $135 a month. Reuters and Bridge used to charge $1000 a month for it. www.equis.com
I can understand that some users would appreciate the service being moved from the brain dead Quote.com, but it seems highly likely to me ESig will discontinue it soon. Why would they provide two competing services? Particularly one that is cheaper and better than what they are offering. AlthoughQCharts had customer service that made even TradeStation look good by comparison, they did have a transparent and simple pricing structure, unlike Esig, and the product itself is far superior to ESig in my view. Users can only hope that ESig marries the excellent QCharts interface with its own more comprehensive data feed and basically leaves it alone, or, just sells the whole thing to IB.