Data Downlink Corp., a privately held global provider of business and
financial information, has announced the change of its corporate name and
brand identity to Alacra, Inc. The company's portfolio of service offerings,
which includes the business search engine Portal B and its premium database
service .xls, will now be packaged as Alacra. Alacra, Inc. has also announced
that Mergerstat, a leading supplier of U.S. mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
data, will provide Alacra with U.K. and European M&A information.
Name Change
"Our change to Alacra represents much more than a new name," said Steven
Goldstein, CEO of Alacra, Inc. "Five years since our founding, we have
evolved from a mere provider of other publishers' data to a primary source
of varied information solutions for more than 500 financial institutions
and professional services firms around the world. We have developed tremendous
expertise in packaging business information to specifically meet our customers'
needs. Our new brand identity reflects this evolution."
Indicative of substantive changes to the company's offerings, Alacra
has introduced a new service, Alacra Book, a Web-based publishing platform
that quickly collects and packages business information from multiple sources
into a single Adobe PDF document. Alacra Book is intended for use by investment
banks, law firms, consultancies, and other corporations in the daily preparation
of Public Information Books (PIB) and other presentations. Accessible via
the Internet and a company's intranet, Alacra Book reportedly reduces to
fewer than 10 minutes a critical compilation task that used to take multiple
staff members hours to complete.
Alacra's business search engine, previously known as Portal B, has been
enhanced as well. Now called Alacra (http://www.alacra.com), the sophisticated
online search service has far greater functionality in finding and sorting
results, puts information together in more meaningful ways, and is easier
to use than the Portal B service the company launched 1 year ago.
Mergerstat
Mergerstat has leveraged its recent merger with Corpfin, Ltd., a leading
provider of U.K. and European corporate finance information, to extend
its coverage to international M&A. The European data supplied will
complement the U.S. and U.S. cross-border information currently available
from Alacra. According to the announcement, the expanded coverage combines
Mergerstat's well-recognized wealth of accurate and detailed financial
information supplemented by Corpfin's acknowledged expertise in reporting
deal structures and advisors.
"This data extension is one of the first fruits of collaboration between
two powerful suppliers of transaction-critical information, allowing Mergerstat
to effectively cover M&A activity globally," said Brian Rarity of Corpfin
and CEO of the recently merged companies. "By offering Mergerstat through
Alacra we will capitalize on their international reach into professional
service organizations."
Source: Alacra, Inc., New York, 212/363-9620; http://www.alacra.com. |
