Experian acquires QuickAddress for £106 million

QuickAddress software enables organisations to accurately validate callers' addresses from their postcode and house number, ensuring that this vital information is correct at the point of initial contact. QuickAddress captures, cleans, and enhances address records by validating address data against records of national postal authorities. QAS will trade as 'QAS, an Experian company', within Experian's Marketing Services division and continue to be led by Simon Worth, currently Chief Executive Officer of QAS.

Announcing the acquisition, Richard Fiddis, Managing Director of Experian UK and Ireland, said: "Experian's growth to become market leader in the UK in almost every area in which it operates over the last decade has been largely organic but we also have a track record of acquiring successful businesses that complement our core business to enable us to offer a range of products and services throughout the customer life cycle, which no other company in the UK or Europe can match.

"This is one of the ten largest acquisitions in the UK Software & Services sector this year. It supports our strategy to invest in market leading, high growth companies that add scale and enhance the breadth and depth of our activities to help our clients find, develop and manage profitable customer relationships.

"Experian has acquired QAS because it is a successful market leader in its own right, with an excellent record of growth since it was established in 1990, and because there is a strong strategic fit between the two organisations.

"Our clients will benefit from the synergies created by bringing the two companies together to provide a consistent approach to data integrity throughout the course of the customer life cycle right from the first point of contact - protecting them against the financial, regulatory and brand image risks posed by poor data quality."

As well as being the global leader in providing information solutions, Experian leads the market in the development of fraud prevention systems that are used by public and private organisations to authenticate identities to enable them to conduct business over the Internet, to tackle credit application fraud and to prevent money laundering and identity theft. It is also one of the UK's foremost companies in consumer profiling and market segmentation, economic forecasting and public policy research, supporting businesses, policy makers and investors in making tactical and strategic decisions.

The acquisition of QAS is consistent with Experian’s global strategy of acquiring complementary businesses that provide new products, new data or entry into new vertical or regional markets, while leveraging the core assets of Experian.