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Wednesday October 2 8:01 AM EDT
Financial Times Information Signs Global Strategic Partnership With Verity
SUNNYVALE, Calif., Oct. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Financial Times Information (FTI), the business and specialist financial information company within the
Pearson media group, has signed a global strategic licensing agreement with Verity Inc for the co-development of a new generation of online and
CD-ROM based information products.
The new products, to be based on Verity's advanced search technology 'SEARCH'97' will be central to FT Information's aggressive expansion plans in the
global market for business information.
FT Information's online business information service, FT Profile, is the market leader in Europe and the company has a growing share of the world-wide
market for business information. Verity was chosen as the key partner in a multi-million pound project to replace the core technology behind the FT Profile
service.
"FT Information builds world-class products and Verity are the acknowledged leader in search technology for intranets and the Internet," commented
Martin Brooks, Managing Director of FT Information. "Verity have demonstrated their unparalleled experience in integrating their technologies into various
environments, so we believe it is an ideal partnership."
Donal Smith, Managing Director of FT Information's General Business Information division added, "This search technology will put us at the forefront of
delivering timely and relevant information in a variety of formats to our customers' desktops," he explained. "It means being able to offer news alerting
services, personal daily 'Me' pages, natural language searching, relevance feedback and image delivery. It will also enable us to significantly increase the
content of our current and future on-line products."
"We are pleased to partner with Financial Times Information," commented Philippe Courtot, Chairman and CEO of Verity, Inc. "Our leading edge
technology combined with the wide-ranging content available from FT Information will provide users with access to a new paradigm in comprehensive and
personalized information services."
"FT Information is a prestigious information group," said Ed Gordon, Managing Director of Verity's UK subsidiary. "This alliance is an important step in
Verity's strategy to expand our presence in the UK marketplace and demonstrates Verity's commitment to providing leading-edge solutions for world class
companies."
Initially, Verity's Development Toolkit will be used to enable advanced searches to be performed on sections of the FT Profile Database via new Web
Products. In parallel, the full FT Profile service will be migrated to a new environment and we will be implementing the entire Verity SEARCH'97 product
set which will include the Personal Information Server and Agent Server. Previews of the first products are scheduled to be shown to customers at the end
of the year.
About FT Information
FT Information is one of the world's leading suppliers of specialist financial and business information. It comprises FT Profile, FT Discovery, FT
McCarthy, Broadcast Monitoring Company, FT Business Research Centre, Extel, Interactive Data, joint venture news agency AFX News and the newly
acquired Asia Intelligence Wire (AIW).
FT Information employs more than 1400 people in over 20 offices worldwide. It is part of the Information Division of Pearson plc, the international media
group engaged in information, education and entertainment markets.
For more information contact FT Profile by email at ftprofile@ft.com, on the World Wide Web site at info.ft.com, or by calling 0171 825
7905. |
