Intelius

Infobox Company
company_name = Intelius, Inc.
company_type = corporation
genre = electronic commerce
foundation = January 2003
founder = Naveen Jain, John Arnold, Edward Petersen, Kevin Marcus, Niraj Shah, Chandan Chauhan
location_city =
location_country =
location = Bellevue, Washington,
flagcountry|United States
origins = Microsoft, InfoSpace
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
area_served = United States
industry = online data broker
products =
services = background checks, identity theft protection
revenue = $55,000,000 (2006)
operating_income =
net_income =
num_employees = 113
parent =
divisions =
subsid =
owner =
company_slogan = Live in the know.
Live Inteliusly.
homepage = http://www.intelius.com
dissolved =
footnotes =

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.cite web
title=Intelius, Inc.
url=http://www.intelius.com/corp/index.html
accessdate=2007-04-13 ] cite web
title=Intelius - profile
url=http://www.thealarmclock.com/mt/archives/2004/09/intelius_profil.html
accessdate=2007-04-13 ] cite web
title=If in doubt, check it out : Profile of Naveen Jain
url=http://thestevies.com/CXONews/November2006FullText.html#story_01
accessdate=2007-04-13 ] cite paper
author=Nina Shapiro
title=Intelius Says it's Capable of Conducting a Full Background Check on Anyone
publisher=Seattle Weekly
date=April 11, 2007
url=http://www.seattleweekly.com/2007-04-11/news/intelius-says-it-s-capable-of-conducting-a-full-background-check-on-anyone.php
accessdate=2007-04-13 ] cite paper
author=John Swartz and Byron Acohido
title=Who's guarding your data in the cybervault?
publisher=USA Today
date=April 1, 2007
url=http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/infotheft/2007-04-01-choicepoint_N.htm?csp=34
accessdate=2007-04-07 ] Founded in 2003 with origins in Microsoft and InfoSpacecite web
title=Intelius Founders Win Lawsuit
url=http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/2210351
accessdate=2007-04-13 ] and employing a staff of 113, Intelius is ranked as one of the top 100 electronic commerce sites on the Internet. 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 SECcite paper
author=Tim Mullaney
title=Intelius, Founded by InfoSpace's Jain, Considers Going Public
publisher=Bloomberg
date=December 26, 2006
url=http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=aGjDKWxBTpzc
accessdate=2007-04-17 ]

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 Marcuscite web
title=Intelius founders win lawsuit
url=http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/2210351
accessdate=2007-04-13 ] as well as John Arnold, Edward Petersen, Niraj Shah and Chandan Chauhan. Setting up shop in 3 stories of a building right across the street, Intelius began offering background checks with online access to court records, property holdings, address histories, and less reliably, "relatives and associates", for a charge of $50 to a credit card. InfoSpace sued both Jain and Marcus for violating the non-compete clauses in their contracts. Jain and Marcus prevailed in May of that year.

Market and traffic

Intelius links from major portals such as Yahoo and AOL. Advertising is important to all electronic commerce sites, and Intelius consistently ranks in the top ten B2B (business to business) advertisers.cite web
title=iMedia Connection: Advanced Site Search
url=https://www.imediaconnection.com/global/search.asp?section=features&page=1&query=intelius
accessdate=2007-04-14 ] Intelius claims more than 4 million unique hits and also receives more than one million hits daily. Overall it ranks as one of the top 100 Ecommerce sites on the internet. Despite its profitability, consumers are wary of having personal, public information so easily accessible on the internet for a fee.

Target markets

A majority of Intelius' revenue comes from selling background reports. [cite paper
author=Sara Kehaulani Goo
title=Dinner, Movie, Background Check for Online Daters
publisher=The Washington Post
date=February 1, 2007
url=http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070201/NEWS/702010368/1021/RSS06&source=RSS
accessdate=2007-04-17 ] ;Background checks for datingIntelius 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.cite paper
author=Sara Kehaulani Goo
title=Dinner, Movie, Background Check for Online Daters
publisher=The Washington Post
date=February 1, 2007
url=http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070201/NEWS/702010368/1021/RSS06&source=RSS
accessdate=2007-04-17 ] Critics point out the advertising campaign's reliance on "scare tactics".cite paper
author=Mandy Stadtmiller
title=Check Mate
publisher=The New York Post
date=September 27, 2006
url=http://www.nypost.com/seven/09272006/entertainment/check_mate_entertainment_mandy_stadtmiller.htm
accessdate=2007-04-17 ]

;Employer background checksOn 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.cite web
title=IntelliSense Sold
url=http://www.thebackgroundinvestigator.com/articles.asp?artid=1471
accessdate=2007-04-17 ] cite web
title=Intelius Expands Applications for Fortune 500 Customers Through Acquisition of IntelliSense Corporation
url=http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release_html_b1?release_id=191061
accessdate=2007-04-17 ] ;Direct marketing leadsIntelius also provides direct marketing leads for direct mail and telemarketing.cite web
title=The world doesn't stop, why should your data?
url=http://batch.intelius.com/lists/index.php?ReportType=34&
accessdate=2007-04-17 ]

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. Intelius filed a registration statement on January 10, 2008 for an initial public offering to raise up to $143.75 million.cite web
title=Intelius plans IPO of up to $143.75 mln - SEC filing
url=http://www.reuters.com/article/newIssuesNews/idUSN1023151320080110
date=2008-01-10
author=Julie Vorman
publisher=Reuters
accessdate=2008-01-10 ] [ [http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1255691/000089102008000014/v28895orsv1.htm sv1 ] ]

Controversy

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.cite web
title=Cell phone directory rings alarm bells
url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22902400/
accessdate=2008-02-29 ] 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.cite web
title=Verizon To Sue Intelius? Spotlight on Local Mobile Privacy
url=http://localmobilesearch.net/?p=407
accessdate=2008-02-29 ] cite web
title=Company shuts down cell phone directory
url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22956815/
accessdate=2008-02-29 ]

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."cite web
title=Intelius Privacy FAQ
url=https://www.intelius.com/privacy-faq.php#5
accessdate=2008-02-29 ] 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.cite web
title=Opt-out of the Intelius database and affiliated brands
url=http://www.privacyalerts.org/opt-out-int.html
accessdate=2008-02-29 ]

Awards

*2006 Ernst and Young finalist for Entrepreneur of the Year [ [http://seattle.dbusinessnews.com/shownews.php?newsid=77960&type_news=past dBusinessNews :: Daily Business News Delivered to Your Desktop ] ]
*2006 Stevie Award for Best New Company
*2007 CODiE Award finalist for Best Online Consumer Information Service cite web
title=Finalist Showcase - The 22nd Annual SIIA Codie Awards
url=http://www.siia.net/codies/2007/showcase_detail.asp?id=48
accessdate=2007-04-17 ]
*2007 Stevie Award finalist for Most Innovative Company [ [http://www.stevieawards.com/pubs/awards/70_2100_13848.cfm The American Business Awards: The Stevies ] ]

References