US TELECOMS and internet firm Neustar is to buy TargusInfo, the marketing technology company founded by Irishman George Moore, for $650 million (€472.4 million) in cash.
Washington DC-based TargusInfo, which was founded by Louth-born businessman George Moore with Jim Shaffer in 1993, provides caller identification services and helps its clients to identify, verify and locate customers, using secure databases.
It processes in the region of 100 billion transactions a year, and generated $149 million in revenues in the year to September 30th, 2011, a rise of 20 per cent year on year.
Mr Moore is chairman and chief executive of TargusInfo and a significant shareholder in the company. He is a regular visitor to Ireland and is involved with a number of Irish-American organisations including the Taoiseach’s Ireland America Economic Advisory Board and the Irish Technology Leadership Group (ITLG).
Mr Moore owns Belleek Pottery in Co Fermanagh and Galway Crystal. He attended the Global Irish Economic Forum in Dublin last weekend.
Accounts released by Neustar show that TargusInfo had revenues of $130.4 million in 2010 and earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation of $43.6 million.
Neustar said the transaction will boost its position in the $30 billion information services market.
“This transaction is a significant and logical step in our growth strategy,” said Neustar chief executive Lisa Hook.
“Neustar has long provided communications, media and marketing companies with insights derived from their own data. By combining with TargusInfo, we will be able to offer a much more diverse portfolio of services in the real-time information and analytics market.”
The acquisition is expected to add about 20 cent to Neustar’s earnings per share in 2012, and will help Neustar generate revenues of about $750 million as it develops its information and analytics services and opens them up to a wider range of businesses.
Mr Moore welcomed the deal. “Given how well our two companies know each other and the compatible cultures, we are confident that the strengths of both platforms will be preserved and that the two companies will be smoothly integrated,” he said.
The cash acquisition will be funded by a combination of $600 million in financing and cash on hand, and is expected to close in the fourth quarter of the year.
A regulatory filing showed that Neustar is also seeking a $100 million revolving line of credit as part of its loans to finance the purchase, bringing the total loans to $700 million.
Speaking at an ITLG event in Silicon Valley last April Mr Moore advised young entrepreneurs against raising venture capital.
“Find a customer instead. Don’t do a Powerpoint presentation and try and raise money from . Then the valuation of the company will be higher and there will be more for you.”
MASTER OF A DIVERSE PORTFOLIO: ENTREPRENEUR AND PHILANTHROPIST
DUNDALK-BORN businessman George Moore (60) moved to the US in the 1970s, taking with him two degrees from University College Dublin.
While in the US he went on to gain an MBA and DBA from George Washington University in Washington DC.
Before setting up Targus Information in 1993, Moore was senior vice-president with CACI International, in Washington, DC, where he managed the market analysis division.
He then moved on to National Decision Systems, a California-based target marketing company, where he was executive vice-president before it was acquired by Equifax. Following the deal, he became executive vice-president with Equifax.
Aside from telecommunications and marketing, Moore also dabbles in crystal and china through Erne Heritage Holdings, which owns Belleek China and Galway Irish Crystal.
He is involved in the Ireland America Economic Advisory Board to the Taoiseach, which was established in 1992 to provide a forum for senior US executives in efforts to promote Ireland as an investment location.
He also serves on the board of the Northern Ireland Trade and Investment Council, is involved in Belfast-based development organisation the Flax Trust, and is a trustee of the Northern Ireland Memorial Fund, which offers help to those who have been affected by the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
Moore has a string of honours to his name. UCD gave him the Outstanding Alumnus Award in 1991. Irish America Magazine named him among its top 100 in business 1991-2006.
In 2006, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Sciences by the University of Ulster. The following year, he received an honorary CBE from Queen Elizabeth in recognition of his contribution to Northern Ireland's economy.
Earlier this year, Moore and his wife Angela, who is from the North, donated $5 million at the American Ireland Fund gala to his alma mater UCD, to fund training for engineers and computer scientists.
