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Updated: Intelius has purchased people search engine Spock. Financial terms of the deal, which was first reported by VentureBeat Thursday, were not disclosed, although Intelius co-founder Ed Petersen said in an interview that it was “hotly contested.” Spock has raised $8 million in two rounds of venture financing, but it’s in a crowded space. Even Google (NSDQ: GOOG) has entered the people search market with its introduction last week of profile results on the first page of some name queries.
The purchase of Spock will give Intelius an entry into the search market for unstructured data since Spock pulls its results from social networking sites and blog posts. By contrast, Intelius specializes in providing people search results and background checks based on data from public records. Spock
While they have done a phenomenal job marketing their service, it doesn’t equate to having the best service. I found this article interesting on comparing the various background check services: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124286773775841705.html I know working as a private investigator at http://tenantscreeningbackgroundcheck.com that we generate very current and expansive reports – some are over 100 pages with a significant business person or person with a very “active” background. The information that is available today is mindblowing! I am constantly getting comments from my clients who are totally amazed with how much we can dig up on each search.
Oops, more competition
This will make intelius a lot more competitive competitor
could this be the new buble or should i say a trend in the next series of company buyouts for 2009?
these companies are obsolete anyways compared to http://www.choicelevel.com which allows unlimited background checks for forty dollars. these other maniacs charge fifty dollars for one background check.
this deal will fall apart just like the others touched by Intelius