ABACUS Direct Launches in Europe
biz.yahoo.com
WESTMINSTER, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 12, 1998--ABACUS Direct Corporation (NASDAQ:ABDR - news), the leading provider of information products and behavioral marketing research services to the direct marketing industry is pleased to announce the intention to launch ABACUS Direct Europe.
ABACUS Direct Europe will deliver a range of database services to improve Prospecting, Housefile targeting and third party list Optimization in the Catalog and Retail industries in both consumer and business to business sectors. The move brings a totally new concept in customer acquisition and targeting backed by 10 years of cooperative transactional database experience in the US. The announcement comes less than two weeks after the signing of its 1000th catalog participant in the ABACUS Alliance.
ABACUS Direct Europe will be a joint venture between two leading players in their respective markets. Colorado-based ABACUS Direct Corporation and VNU, a large Dutch Publishing and business information company. The unrivaled power of ABACUS' statistical modeling of transactional data combined with VNU's comprehensive Claritas Lifestyle databases, representing every UK household promises to revolutionize the Catalog market. Spearheading the new venture from the UK will be Managing Director, Chris Morris, who joins from the Claritas Group.
Commenting on the opportunities the new venture creates for catalogers in both the UK and continental Europe, ABACUS Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Tony White remarked, ''We have consistently delivered significant bottom line benefits to our catalog partners in the US. We are delighted to be able to extend that service to the European market, in particular the UK which has seen significant growth over the last five years.''
The initiative brings together two highly synergistic and like-minded businesses in the joint venture. Peter Tordoir, the Chairman of VNU Business Information Europe commented, ''VNU's Business Information companies are passionate about one thing, and that is delivering bottom line improvement through the intelligent application of valuable data. Joining forces with ABACUS Direct Corporation is the perfect partnership.'' ABACUS Direct Europe will focus initially on the UK market and plan to roll out to Germany and France within the next two years.
ABACUS manages the United State's premier membership database, the ABACUS Alliance, the nation's largest proprietary database of consumer catalog buying behavior used for target marketing purposes. The ABACUS Alliance database currently contains records for 1,000 merchandise catalogs, with more than 2 billion consumer catalog transactions representing virtually all U.S. consumer catalog buying households. ABACUS applies its proprietary modeling techniques to the power of shared data to improve profitability, targeting efficiency and reduce unwanted mailings. |
