DBT TO ACQUIRE WINSHAPES - DEVELOPER OF ADVANCED
LINK ANALYSIS INVESTIGATIVE SOFTWARE TOOLS
DBT Online, Inc. and privately held WinSHAPES, Inc. of Seattle has announced that they have signed a letter of intent for DBT to acquire WinSHAPES, Inc. DBT is the fastest growing nationwide provider in the new market for online investigative information services. WinSHAPES is a market leader in Windows 95/98/NT link analysis software used by business and government to fight fraud and crime. The WinSHAPES software identifies relationships among different pieces of data from various sources and automatically converts text into graphic illustrations that visualize relationships among people, businesses, vehicles and many other types of assets. Both companies' products are increasingly used by insurance companies, financial institutions, law enforcement agencies and other corporate entities to combat fraud and crime. The combination of their technologies will make it even easier for investigators to analyze and present a case.
Charles A. Lieppe, DBT President and CEO, said WinSHAPES will be used to further strengthen DBT's AutoTrack, the premier online information service used by business and government to solve more crimes, locate people and assets faster, and detect and prevent fraud more efficiently. AutoTrack enables investigators to develop and qualify leads quickly by searching, right from their desktops, DBT's data warehouse, which contains the country's largest depository of public records combined with other publicly available information.
"For the first time, our subscribers will be able to merge and link their data directly with AutoTrack, as well as with data from other vital sources," Mr. Lieppe said. "Once the data are linked, customers will be able to discover more relationships faster among all the data, and then illustrate those relationships in a number of clear and compelling graphic formats." The companies will demonstrate their technologies this week at the 1999 Insurance Fraud Management Conference in Tampa, Florida.
Mr. Lieppe noted the proposed acquisition demonstrates DBT's ongoing commitment to bring innovation to the online investigative information services industry. "In a little over five years, our Company has created a large, nationwide, easy-to-use database that is meeting the expanding needs of both our business and government customers," he said. "The 1998 launch of our Internet browser and Windows compatible AutoTrackXP product has given our subscribers faster and easier access to our databases. The addition of WinSHAPES' technology will make our data even more powerful thus accelerating our growth in many markets, just as our 1997 acquisition of the Information Connectivity Group, Inc. accelerated our growth in the property and casualty insurance industry."
WinSHAPES (http://www.winshapes.com) will continue to operate as a separate business unit under the guidance of its founders, Don Brown, President and CEO, and John Avery-Morrison, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Mr. Lieppe said DBT expected to increase WinSHAPES distribution through DBT's recently expanded sales and service organizations and through its new, Internet-compatible AutoTrackXP product. Beyond this, the combination of the two companies' technology resources should accelerate product development for both companies.
"We are extremely excited about becoming part of DBT," said Mr. Brown, WinSHAPES CEO. "The opportunity to combine AutoTrack's ability to create a single, integrated report from numerous databases with WinSHAPES' ability to link data from strategic partners represents the marriage of two powerful technologies in the fight against fraud and crime. WinSHAPES initial success is proof that corporations and agencies fighting fraud and organized crime want tools that enable them to access, merge, store, analyze, share, manage and present data quickly and compellingly. From suspicion to conviction our tools provide investigators, detectives, agents, analysts, Police Chiefs, prosecutors and attorneys the tools to process and communicate case information more effectively."
DBT expects to complete the acquisition of WinSHAPES within the next thirty days.
About DBT Online, Inc.
DBT Online, Inc. (http://www.dbt.com) is the fastest growing nationwide provider in the new market for online investigative information services. Qualified businesses, such as insurance companies and financial institutions, as well as law enforcement and government agencies, use DBT's proprietary applications and data to solve more crimes, locate people and assets faster, and detect and prevent fraud more efficiently. To quickly develop and qualify leads, subscribers use DBT products and services to instantly search and cross-reference more than 4 billion current and historical records from a myriad of sources housed within the Company's data warehouse. With more than 23 terabytes of capacity, DBT's database is one of the country's largest depositories of public records combined with other publicly available information.
For the year ended December 31, 1998, consolidated revenues and royalties increased 43% to a record $54 million and net income increased 12% to $7 million or $0.35 per share on a diluted basis. The Company's Electronic Information Group's revenues grew 52% while the Company invested in its new data centers and entered new markets in order to fuel future growth.
Forward-Looking Statements: Information contained above with respect to the Company's Results of Operations, regarding expected future events and financial results, is forward-looking and subject to risks and uncertainties. Those statements are forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 31E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The following important factors could affect the future results of the Company and could cause those results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements: (i) the ability to manage DBT's rapid expansion, (ii) protecting DBT's proprietary technology, (iii) impact of future government regulation on the availability of public records, and (iv) the extent, timing and success of competition from other database providers.