Experian Consolidates Units in Bid to Boost Services
By RAJIV VYAS
Costa Mesa-based Experian Information Solutions Inc. is consolidating two of its online consumer credit groups as it seeks to boost its share of the growing data-services market.
CreditExpert LLC and Consumer-Info.com, both Experian units, are being combined to form Experian Consumer Direct.
Experian is a unit of Britain’s GUS PLC. The U.S. arm is one of the top credit-reporting agencies in the nation, keeping details on 215 million consumers and 15 million businesses.
Ed Ojdana, founder and president of ConsumerInfo, will lead the combined group, which employs about 215 workers.
“By managing the brands in a portfolio sense we can grow even bigger than managing the brands separately,” Ojdana said. “There are some efficiencies in bringing two organizations together.”
Two years ago Experian decided to boost its business from data mining and other services, drawing on its bread-and-butter credit reporting business for leads.
Experian launched CreditExpert in late 2001.
Then in April it bought ConsumerInfo from Westlake Village-based Homestore Inc. for $130 million in cash.
Based in Orange, ConsumerInfo was started in 1995. It has about a million customers, while CreditExpert has about 130,000, according to Ojdana.
Ojdana said Consumer Direct will draw on a huge customer database from which to peddle other financial services.
“When people come and buy a credit report, they are planning to make a major purchase,” Ojdana said.
He boasts that the new unit is a big player on the Internet.
“Equifax and TrueCredit are out there (but) we generate 10 or 12 million unique visitors a month,” which he claims is more than his competitors.
Experian is in the process of consolidating the units.
The integration has been under way for a few months,Experian made an internal announcement of the merger in August.
ConsumerInfo’s management team will lead the company under the new umbrella, Ojdana said.
The staff,35 at CreditExpert and 180 at ConsumerInfo,is being absorbed into Consumer Direct, including management.
CreditExpert focuses on direct mail and leads from its banking partners while ConsumerInfo markets and advertises through radio, television and online spots.
Demand for credit reports and other products is rising, Ojdana said.
“In another year or so we want to double the membership,” he said.
