Acquisition

Experian Group Limited
19 April 2007



                             Experian Group Limited
                                        
                             Acquisition of Hitwise


Experian, the global information solutions company, announces that it has
acquired Hitwise, a leading Internet marketing intelligence company, which helps
clients monitor the performance of their websites and target their online
advertising spend more effectively. The purchase price is approximately $240m
and will be funded from Experian's existing cash resources. The transaction is
subject to regulatory approval.

Don Robert, Chief Executive Officer of Experian, commented:

'We have been successfully repositioning our Marketing Solutions business to
meet our clients' needs as they continue to switch more of their advertising
spend online. Hitwise, which is a rapidly growing, successful business, brings
new, unique data to Experian and complements the existing data, tools and
expertise that we already offer to clients in other areas such as research
services and email distribution.'

Andrew Walsh, Chief Executive Officer of Hitwise, said:

'Over the last 10 years, Hitwise has developed a truly unique digital
intelligence service that helps inform the online marketing strategies of 1,200
clients around the world every day. We are excited to become part of Experian,
having worked with them for over four years. We will now be able to accelerate
Hitwise's growth and profitability through access to Experian's wider pool of
data, tools and clients, while more quickly expanding our global footprint.'

Description of Hitwise

Founded in 1998, Hitwise collects and aggregates information from Internet
Service Providers (ISPs) on how over 25 million consumers use and search the
Internet in the US, UK, Australia and other countries in Asia Pacific. Using
proprietary technology, Hitwise reports on nearly a million websites each day
and sells this information to companies who market their services online. The
data allows companies to benchmark their websites against competitors in terms
of visitor market share, visitor profiles and time spent on sites. It also helps
companies to determine which are the best websites on which to advertise, which
search engines drive traffic to their sites and which key words are most
effective.

To safeguard consumer privacy, the data excludes personally identifiable
information and is aggregated into socio-demographic marketing segments. Hitwise
owns this data once it has been processed.

Hitwise has over 1,200 clients across numerous sectors including financial
services, media, travel and retail. Hitwise's clients include HSBC, AXA, Google,
eBay, CBS News, ask.com, IKEA, MTV and Qantas. The top ten clients only account
for 5% of sales. 43% of sales are generated in the US, 36% in the UK and 21%
from Australia and Asia Pacific. Hitwise benefits from clear barriers to entry,
reflecting the scale of its operations, the quality of its data and its long
term ISP relationships.

Rationale for acquisition

The acquisition of Hitwise continues the repositioning of Experian's Marketing
Solutions activities. Companies are increasingly shifting from mass marketing
through established media, such as direct mail, to more targeted marketing
through many more channels, including email, Internet and mobile devices.
Through its expertise in website monitoring, Hitwise extends the range of
marketing services that Experian can offer its clients.

Hitwise strengthens Experian's position in market research by bringing new,
unique data to Experian on how consumers behave online, to complement our
existing knowledge of how they behave offline. Hitwise's services are also
complementary to other Experian products. For example, Hitwise will leverage the
sales and distribution network of CheetahMail, our email delivery and analytics
company.

Hitwise operates in high growth markets. It is estimated that total US online
advertising spend, for example, will grow by about 20% CAGR between 2005 and
2010 to $32bn as Internet usage by both consumers and businesses grows (source:
Interactive Advertising Bureau). This growth in Internet advertising is fuelling
demand from companies to target better their advertising spend (be it for search
marketing, local search or banner advertising) and to measure its effectiveness.
Hitwise helps companies achieve both these objectives.

Hitwise has good organic growth prospects, driven by:


   • adding new clients in existing geographies - Hitwise has increased its
     customer base by more than 40% in the last two years;
   
   • selling additional products to existing clients - Hitwise has a good
     track record;
   
   • product innovation - Hitwise continues to develop its proprietary
     technology to provide marketers with new ways of analysing Internet
     activity; and
   
   • geographic expansion - Hitwise has the opportunity over time to move
     into other parts of Western Europe and Asia.


Financial performance

Hitwise has an attractive financial model. Revenue is highly predictable as
clients generally pay annual licence fees in advance and customer retention
rates are high. Cost growth is also relatively low once critical mass has been
reached in a market, as Hitwise pays for the data from the ISPs once and then
resells it many times.

This model underpins Hitwise's expected future growth. In the year to 31 March
2007, Hitwise is expected to generate sales of approximately $40m (a
year-on-year increase of about 50%) and a small profit. Given that the
visibility of future revenue is high, Experian expects Hitwise to grow sales by
more than 40% in the year to 31 March 2008 and generate EBIT (before
amortisation of acquisition intangibles) of $12-15m. The acquisition is expected
to be neutral to Benchmark earnings* in the year to March 2008 and generate a
post-tax double-digit return in the third full financial year on a fully-taxed
basis.

Hitwise, which has been acquired from its original backers and management, will
form part of Experian Marketing Solutions. Hitwise has over 200 employees based
mainly in Melbourne, New York and London. The acquisition is expected to close
in May 2007.


Enquiries

Experian

Paul Brooks         Chief Financial Officer           020 3042 4215
Fay Dodds           Director of Investor Relations


Finsbury

Rollo Head                                            020 7251 3801
James Wyatt-Tilby



Experian announcements are available on www.experiangroup.com

There will be a conference call today at 9am UK time to discuss this
transaction. Slides accompanying this call can be either downloaded or viewed
live in conjunction with the conference call by visiting www.experiangroup.com.
A recording of the call will also be available later in the day on the website.

All financial information is based on unaudited management accounts. Certain
statements made in this announcement are forward-looking statements. Such
statements are based on current expectations and are subject to a number of
risks and uncertainties that could cause actual events or results to differ
materially from any expected future events or results referred to in these
forward-looking statements.

*Benchmark earnings: earnings before amortisation of acquisition intangibles,
goodwill impairments, changes in respect of demerger-related equity incentive
plans, exceptional items, financing fair value measurements and taxation.







                      This information is provided by RNS
            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange