Intelius

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Intelius, Inc.

Type	corporation
Genre	electronic commerce
Founded	January 2003
Founder(s)	Naveen Jain, John Arnold, Edward Petersen, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, Chandan Chauhan
Headquarters	Bellevue, Washington,  United States
Area served	United States
Key people	*Naveen Jain, CEO *Bill Owens, Chairman *Kevin Marcus, CTO *Edward Petersen, Exec. VP of Sales and Marketing *John Arnold, Exec. VP of Business Development *Paul Cook, CFO *Niraj Shah, Exec. VP of Engineering *Chandan Chauhan, Senior VP of Product Marketing
Industry	online data broker
Services	background checks, identity theft protection
Revenue	$55,000,000 (2006)
Employees	113
Website	http://www.intelius.com

Intelius, Inc. is a United States corporation with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington specializing in public records information and offering service to consumers and businesses which include background checks and identity theft protection.^{[1][2][3][4][5]} Founded in 2003 with origins in Microsoft and InfoSpace^[2][4][6] and employing a staff of 113,^[4] Intelius is ranked as one of the top 100 electronic commerce sites on the Internet.^[1][3] It had $88 million in revenue in 2007 and has been profitable since 2004. Revenue for Q1 of 2008 was approx 32 Million with EBITDA Profit of 11 Million as per Intelius's IPO filing with SEC^[7]

Contents 1 Foundation 2 Market and traffic 2.1 Target markets 3 Possible IPO 4 Controversy 4.1 Cellular phone directory 4.2 Opt-out policy 4.3 Automatic enrollment 5 Awards 6 References

[edit] Foundation

In March 1996, former Microsoft executive Naveen Jain founded InfoSpace, an early online search engine and directory. From 1996-2002, he served as CEO of InfoSpace. Jain co-founded Intelius with co-worker Kevin Marcus^[6]

[edit] Market and traffic

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Intelius claims more than 4 million unique hits^[4] and also receives approximately one million hits daily.^[3] Overall it ranks as one of the top 100 Ecommerce sites on the internet.^[1][3] Intelius consistently ranks in the top ten B2B (business to business) advertisers.^[8]

[edit] Target markets

A majority of Intelius' revenue comes from selling background reports.^[7][9]

Background checks for dating

Intelius targets marketing for consumers and businesses with an interest in dating, especially online dating. It provides background checks for potential relationships and verification of identity under the InteliSign branding.^[1][10] Critics point out the advertising campaign's reliance on "scare tactics".^[4][11]

Employer background checks

On December 5, 2006, Intelius enlarged its employment screening market with its acquisition of Bothell, Washington's IntelliSense Corporation, integrating an infrastructure capable of international background information, fingerprinting, and drug screening, and complementing its previous capabilities for small and medium businesses. Naveen Jain said that Intellisense had experience serving Fortune 100 companies.^[12][13]

Direct marketing leads

Intelius also provides direct marketing leads for direct mail and telemarketing.^[14]

[edit] Possible IPO

In late 2006, Intelius began advertising for an executive whose main responsibility would be relations with the Securities and Exchange Commission, according to Bloomberg. CFO Paul Cook told Bloomberg this was a step towards a possible Initial Public Offering. Cook also told Bloomberg that they were weighing the benefits of increased exposure and reputability against the costs of going public, which he estimated at about $1 million per quarter.^[7] Intelius filed a registration statement on January 10, 2008 for an initial public offering to raise up to $143.75 million.^[15][16]

[edit] Controversy

[edit] Cellular phone directory

In early 2008, Intelius came under scrutiny for providing access to private cellular phone numbers culled from a variety of sources, including pizza delivery companies.^[17] In response, Verizon threatened a lawsuit over posting consumer phone numbers without consent. A few days later, on February 1, 2008, the cellular phone directory was taken down.^[18][19]

[edit] Opt-out policy

There has been criticisms for the difficult nature of "opting out" of being listed on Intelius. The firm's Web site states, "Intelius does not usually offer individuals the opportunity to permanently remove their publicly available information from our public records databases."^[20] The site states, "as a courtesy," that personal information may be suppressed by a user's request, provided they mail or fax a notarized letter and a copy of their driver's license, in order to confirm the person's identity.^[19][21]

[edit] Automatic enrollment

Hundreds of customers have complained that by filling out a survey promising ten dollars cash back, their credit or debit cards are automatically enrolled in a monthly service from Adaptive Marketing, an affiliate company.^[22]

[edit] Awards

• 2006 Ernst and Young finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year^[23]
• 2006 Stevie Award for Best New Company^[3]
• 2007 CODiE Award finalist for Best Online Consumer Information Service ^[24]
• 2007 Stevie Award finalist for Most Innovative Company^[25]

[edit] References