News
InfoUSA Licenses Database to Microsoft
Microsoft Corp. has agreed to license infoUSA Inc.'s business listings
database to beef up the software company's online local search offerings,
the companies said Wednesday.
The directory-assistance database of more than 13.5 million U.S. businesses
will be made available on MSN Local Search and Windows Live Local Search,
infoUSA said. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Justin Osmer, a senior product manager for Microsoft, said the infoUSA
information will be added to 13 million listings from Microsoft's current
provider, Amacai, which is based in Chicago. The new data will be made
available over the next couple of months, he said.
The additional information is expected to give Microsoft more firepower
as it battles top search engine Google Inc. and others.
Omaha-based InfoUSA is a database marketing and processing company that
sells directories and lists of sales leads as well as other services.
Also Wednesday, infoUSA announced that it was buying Hackensack, N.J-based
Mokrynskidirect, which provides business and consumer databases and sales
leads. That deal was expected to be finished on May 31. No terms were
disclosed.