Visual Insights Acquires Visible Decisions, Inc. - Creating the World's Leading Provider of Data Visualization Based Software and Services

Business Wire, Jan 24, 2000

Business/Technology Editors

NAPERVILLE, Ill.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 24, 2000

Secures Investment from ABN AMRO Private Equity, the Intel 64 Fund,

Lucent Technologies, and Emigrant Capital.

Visual Insights today announced that it has acquired Visible Decisions, Inc. (VDI). Toronto-based, Visible Decisions is the developer of In3D(TM) and SeeIT(TM) software applications and the leading designer of custom data visualization applications for the financial services industry. Formerly a wholly owned Lucent Technologies (NYSE:LU) Venture, Visual Insights also announced that it is has received venture funding from ABN AMRO Private Equity, the Intel 64 Fund, and Emigrant Capital, as well as additional investment from Lucent's New Ventures Group.

The combination of Visual Insights and Visible Decisions creates the world's leading provider of data visualization based software and services for business performance analysis. Visual Insights solutions enable its customers to build sophisticated marketing, financial and sales strategies by providing a better understanding of customer behavior, promotional effectiveness, risk, finance, and other business performance indicators. Visual Insights' products incorporate patented visual discovery technology, used to visually identify trends, make comparisons and gain insights from business data, and realTime3D(TM) reporting, the company's next generation reporting and presentation solution. Combined, visual discovery and realTime3D(TM) reporting enable more people to make better business decisions - fast.

&uot;The acquisition of Visible Decisions, along with the strength of our new investment partners, enables Visual Insights to bring new applications to market that will revolutionize the way people build sales, marketing, and operational strategies based on historical and real-time data,&uot; said Douglas A. Cogswell, president and CEO of Visual Insights. &uot;With the need to react so quickly, particularly in e-Business, organizations are starving for a new class of solution that transcends traditional query and reporting methods.&uot;

&uot;Our combined mission is to improve the way our customers build and manage their business performance strategies,&uot; said Sharon Lyons, the vice president of sales and services for Visual Insights and former president of Visible Decisions. &uot;Together we can accelerate our product plans and attain broader market penetration for a new class of e-Business focused applications.&uot;

Visual Insights vision is well supported by a network of high profile investors, business partners, and customers.

&uot;We are delighted at the Intel 64 Fund's investment in Visual Insights,&uot; said Anand Chandrasekher, vice president Intel Architecture Business Group and general manager of the Workstations Products Group. &uot;The combination of Itanium(TM) based workstations and Visual Insights next generation analysis and visualization software can help give leading edge e-Businesses a compelling advantage over their competitors.&uot;

&uot;Visual Insights has successfully leveraged one of the true gems of Bell Labs software and created what we believe will become a very strong player in the Web commerce field,&uot; said Tom Uhlman, president of Lucent's New Ventures Group. &uot;We are glad to see such a strong enterprise emerge from the union of Visible Decisions and look forward to continued success.&uot;

Keith Walz, director of ABN AMRO Private Equity, said: &uot;ABN AMRO looks for high growth companies that have the vision, technology and management skills required to develop innovative products and sustain growth, while maintaining a highly competitive market position. Visual Insights fulfills these criteria, and we are pleased to be part of the investment team for this Chicago area enterprise.&uot;

ABN AMRO's Risk Management and Risk Control Department is also a Visual Insights customer. They use the company's products to visually identify, quantify and analyze market and financial risks.

Another notable customer is The Nasdaq-Amex Market Group (www.nasdaq-amex.com), a subsidiary of the National Association of Securities Dealers, Inc., the organization that operates The Nasdaq Stock Market(R) and the American Stock Exchange(R). In the Nasdaq-Amex MarketSite, a showcase broadcast facility built last year in New York City, the firm employs advanced animated visual designs to graphically illustrate stock market activity. Viewing a ten-story outdoor video wall, newscasters and viewers can track investments, at a glance, from a single stock to a whole portfolio.

Jack Feder, director of MarketSite, said: &uot;Visual Insights' visualization capabilities allow us to present, in real time, an accurate and complete picture of a fast-moving market. It's tough to beat visualization when it comes to providing an immediate understanding.&uot;

Additional Visual Insights customers and business partners include Andersen Consulting, Bank of America, Bank One, Dow Jones, First Data Resources, Lucent Technologies, J.P. Morgan, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, Northern Telecom, Northern Trust, SAP, the Toronto Stock Exchange, and USWeb/CKS. Many independent software companies, including Cognos Corporation, IBM, and i2 Technologies, integrate Visual Insights technology into their products to improve their analysis and presentation capabilities.