Dow Jones Launches Private Equity Source Database

Dow Jones Financial Information Services, which provides information for the financial, corporate and emerging markets, this month launched Private Equity Source, a database that tracks all buyout and growth transactions in the U.S. and Europe, including the investment firms and companies involved in those transactions.

Private Equity Source is geared toward private equity firms, hedge funds, investment banks and service providers to complement their research on key investment sectors, deal partners and potential deals through information on today's buyout industry. The database will launch with three years of deal data, covering about 7,700 private equity-backed companies and 1,800 investment firms managing more than $1.56 trillion in assets.

The new database boasts several key features, including profiles that contain complete snapshots of private equity firms and portfolio companies (with investment histories, product overviews and key executives). It also contains contact information for senior personal at these organizations as well as information about which banks, accounting firms, law firms and other service providers have been involved in similar deals.

Private Equity Source also offers analytic tools that can help the user compare target companies to similar deals already closed in a particular sector.

Users can also pinpoint the exact information they need through advanced searches. Search queries can contain such criteria as types of deals (buyouts, M&A, IPO), deal size, time period and company/firms involved. Searches can then be saved, downloaded and shared.

This seems like a very comprehensive database that will provide users with the various and complex pieces of data they need to accomplish their goals. As important as the presence of good data is, of course, the ability to comb through that data to find the most relevant and usable information is just as vital. With the search capabilities Dow Jones has launched with this database, it truly looks like the company has all of its bases covered.

Spoke Launches ConnectUs Email Service

Business networking site Spoke has launched ConnectUs, an email service that enables business professionals to connect with each other via email while protecting their privacy.

Spoke members can use ConnectUs to send a personalized email message to anyone in the Spoke network--which consists of 40 million professionals. Each message is delivered directly to the recipient's email inbox without revealing the recipient's email address, thus ensuring the individual's privacy.

This new feature really helps Spoke close the loop for its users. They can search the Spoke database for relevant business contacts via a variety of criteria--by title, company, industry and location. And now, by using ConnectUs, they can immediately reach out to people with whom they have identified as valuable contacts.

There is certainly a need for this, as most business professionals want to be able to connect with individuals outside of their personal network, but don't know how to make that happen. However, ConnectUs may not be as well received by the individuals who could potentially become bombarded by unsolicited emails. Yet, Spoke most likely offers a feature that can block the messages if a member prefers.

Still, this is a smart--and required--launch for Spoke, and necessary if the company wants to be considered a viable player in the business information and business networking space. Others, such as LinkedIn and Hoover's, have offered such functionality for quite some time. It's a service that business people now just expect to be offered. While it's great to provide them a robust database of contact names, that information isn't nearly as valuable if you can't help them actually connect to those names as well. This is another example of how combining content and tools really works.

I Pay, I Say

While user rating and comments in buying guides and directory listings may seem all sparkly new and very Web 2.0, the concept has been around for a very long time. Indeed, I was involved in a research project with a major yellow pages publisher way back in 1990 to assess whether or not to add ratings information to restaurant listings (with the idea other categories might benefit as well).

The core issue back then was the same as it is now: can objective ratings co-exist with paid advertising?

Perhaps not surprisingly, restaurateur response to ratings played out roughly as follows:

• 5 star restaurants: "great idea; let's do it"
• 4 star restaurants: "intriguing idea"
• 3 star restaurants: "as long as you don't charge extra for it"
• 2 star restaurants: "are you crazy?"
• 1 star restaurants: "Your Pepsi is $2; pay on the way out."

The problem is a fundamental one: advertisers don't want to pay to tell the world ambivalent or negative information about themselves. It's why restaurants don't post negative reviews in their windows.

We tried clever variations. What if we only printed positive reviews? Advertisers shot this down quickly as well. If only good reviews were printed, then those restaurants without reviews must be bad. The ditty "if it's pay to play, then I decide what to say" pretty well sums up the long-standing dynamic.

That's why I was so surprised to see a truly unusual new approach to this age-old coming from user review site Yelp.com. According to the New York Times, while Yelp won't censor or remove negative comments its users make about its advertisers, Yelp allows advertisers to sort positive listings about their business first. The thinking, of course, is that user reviews are much like search results pages: nobody gets past the first few.

Has Yelp artfully cracked the advertising-reviews conundrum? At first I believed they had. Then I started thinking that this was just a cute ploy that advertisers would quickly see through. Then I thought that allowing advertisers to game the system was a little slippery. Finally, my view shifted again: isn't Yelp making a cynical statement about its own value proposition: if nobody is really reading all the reviews it posts, what's the point? Where's the value?

Having thought about this until my head hurt, I thought I'd toss this back to my readers. Breakthrough or not?

Labels: yelp.com

Reed Construction Data Launches SmartBIM Solutions

Reed Construction Data (RCD) last week launched SmartBIM solutions for the architecture, engineering and construction markets. The solution suite will include SmartBIM Library, SmartBIM Objects and RSMeans Quick Cost Estimator.

The company expects SmartBIM will help it improve the customer experience of its Autodesk Revit by providing an object-organization solution (in SmartBIM Library), parametric BIM objects (with SmartBIM Objects) and improved ability to value a project (using RSMeans Quick Cost Estimator).

SmartBIM Library is actually a companion product to Autodesk Revit that enables design firms to more efficiently organize, manage and locate BIM content. Users can generate libraries from data and objects and drag and drop those objects directly into Revit models. SmartBIM objects will also be able to directly link to RSMeans data.

RCD has also introduced SmartBIM Objects for Building Product Manufacturers (BPMs). Having RSMeans Quick Cost Estimator within Revit will enable users to calculate the estimated value of a project specific to its location. RCD plans to integrate RSMeans data into all SmartBIM applications.

RCD continuously launches solutions that integrate into the workflow of its customers, and this new product suite is no different. These SmartBIM solutions are designed to make users more efficient in their day-to-day responsibilities.

At the same time, RCD is able to add increased value by integrating RSMeans Quick Cost Estimator with the SmartBIM solutions, creating a more robust product offering for customers.

With each new launch, RCD comes closer to becoming a one-stop-shop for its customers; a source that will guide these customers through their projects, from start to finish.

ZoomInfo Spins Off Bizo Advertising Unit

ZoomInfo is back in the news this month. This week, the business information company announced that it has spun off its bizographic advertising business unit into a new company called Bizo Inc.

Bizo is an advertising targeting platform based on people's business demographics. The idea for the unit was first announced by ZoomInfo in October 2007, and it already has partnership agreements with several advertisers and publishers. ZoomInfo expects that Bizo will help business-to-business marketers reach the most appropriate business audience in the online environment.

Bizo will leverage ZoomInfo's knowledge of business people and companies, enabling marketers to deliver targeted online ads to business people based on a variety of criteria, including combinations of title, company, industry, functional area, company size, education and location. The platform will officially launch later this year with more than 20 million "targetable" business users in the network.

This seems like a natural next step for ZoomInfo, which--in a relatively short time--has made a name for itself in the business information space. With such a wealth of information, the company is certainly positioned to become a reliable source for online marketers as well. Marketers, of course, recognize the value of targeted marketing, but being able to drill down a target list to criteria such as title and company size isn't the easiest or fastest task. Reaching the right audience with the right message at the right time is crucial. If the Bizo platform can deliver as promised, and deliver valuable ROI to marketers, this product will be a real winner. The fact that it has already engaged advertisers and publishers (even before the actual launch) is promising.