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LONDON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - European information provider Relx
Plc has agreed to buy U.S. company Emailage for around
$480 million in its latest deal to boost the fraud detection
capabilities of its fastest-growing division, a source close to
the company said.
Once a traditional media publisher, Relx has transformed
itself in recent years by selling off print titles and buying
data sets and analytics tools to help professionals and business
clients make decisions, including spotting fraud.
Emailage helps clients spot fraud by using partnerships,
proprietary data and advanced machine learning technology to
build customer profiles associated with email addresses.
It provides financial institutions, e-commerce companies,
travel groups and other customers with fraud risk scores,
spotting email addresses that have been involved in previous
cases of fraud or raising a flag when new addresses appear.
The deal is Relx's third largest acquisition in a decade and
follows the announcement of the purchase last month of
U.S.-based ID Analytics for $375 million.
Both will be integrated into Relx's Risk & Business
Analytics unit, its fastest-growing division whose largest
business operates under the LexisNexis Risk Solutions brand.
Both companies operate in the fraud and identify space, which is
growing at double-digit percentages each year.
With a market value of 39 billion pounds ($51 billion), Relx
sits in the top 15 of Britain's largest listed companies,
employing more than 30,000 employees around the world.
Relx confirmed it was buying Emailage in a statement but did
not give any details on the price.
($1 = 0.7694 pounds)
(Reporting by Kate Holton; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
