(Source: Business Wire)
Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ: EBIX), a leading international supplier of On-Demand
software and E-commerce services to the insurance industry, announced
today that it has acquired California-based E-Z Data, Inc. effective the
1st of October 2009. The signing of the binding agreement and
the closing of the transaction was completed today. The acquisition is
expected to be accretive to Ebix Earnings per Share (EPS).
With over 20 years of successful adoption, E-Z Data currently services
many of the top 20 Fortune 500® life insurance companies and
more than 250,000 professionals worldwide. E-Z Data Life CRM solutions
are now considered the industry standard for agency management, practice
management, and enterprise CRM. E-Z Data solutions cover the full gamut
of financial services distribution -- including insurance companies,
general agents, banks, investment dealers, agents, and financial
advisors.
All E-Z Data exchange solutions are available in an On-Demand basis. 85%
of E-Z Data revenues are subscription-based and recurring in nature.
Further, E-Z Data has offices in California, Virginia, 2 development
centers in India, and various offices around the world in emerging
markets like China and Japan.
E-Z Data has the majority share of the life insurance broker CRM market
in the United States and supports the unique requirements of investment
and insurance advisors, brokerage GAs, broker/dealers and carriers on a
common, On-Demand CRM and distribution platform.
Under terms of the agreement, Ebix has acquired all of the outstanding
capital stock of E-Z Data for an aggregate purchase price of $50,350,000
payable as follows: $25,350,000 paid in cash at closing, and $25,000,000
payable in 496,328 shares of the common stock of Ebix issued at the time
of closing. The Ebix shares carry a put option whereby E-Z Data
shareholders can sell the stock back to Ebix at a 10% discounted value
of $22,500,000 in the month of October 2011. No financial advisors were
involved in the transaction from the Ebix side.
Robin Raina, Chairman, president and CEO of Ebix, said, "This is one of
our most strategic acquisitions since this will provide us access to a
majority of the life and annuity brokers' desktop in the United States.
We have always had the vision to include CRM into the core fabric of the
information exchanged in the insurance business. E-Z Data CRM when
blended into our life and annuity exchanges provides the insurance
industry with a giant leap forward, in terms of making end-to-end,
enterprise-wide information exchange rather seamless for the majority of
the industry.
