As per TechCrunch, Capital One Digital Labs - a wing of
Capital One Financial Corp.
(
COF
) - has purchased nearly all assets of the New York-based data
aggregator, Bundle Corp. Either of the parties have not disclosed
the terms of the deal.
Along with the substantial asset purchases, Capital One has
retained Bundle Corp's CEO and eleven of its employees in its
Capital One Digital Labs.
Bundle Corp was launched in 2010 as an online means of comparing
spending habits by the buyers. As spending data is an enhanced
indicator of a consumer's actual preference and better highlight
the best local businesses, Bundle Corp found it attractive to
deal with.
Last year, Bundle had access to data from
Citigroup, Inc.
(
C
) and other third-party providers pertaining to around 20 million
credit cards of
Visa, Inc.
(
V
) and
Mastercard Incorporated
(
MA
). Bundle also had access to public data from the U.S.
Government.
As for Capital One, technology has been the focal point of its
business model since its inception. The company was one of the
few, which initiated the process of obtaining data to segregate
the credit card users into specific categories and then sell each
user a card as per his needs.
With the acquisition of Bundle Corp, Capital One will be able to
expand it business. Capital One stated that it is planning to
utilize the data available from spending and local directory data
of Bundle Corp to provide its own clientele a range of new
data-driven products.
This will provide consumers with better information to decide
on purchase and spending decisions. By retaining the management
team, Capital One will further solidify its personnel strength.
All these would prove accretive to its financials going forward.
In the last couple of years, Capital One has made some really
impressive strategic acquisitions, such as the purchases of
HSBC Holdings plc
's (
HBC
) credit card business and ING Direct USA - the online banking
unit of
ING Groep NV
(
ING
).These acquisitions have resulted in augmented revenue for the
company and we continue to believe that synergies from all these
will benefit the company.
Capital One currently retains a Zacks #3 Rank, which translates
into a short-term Hold rating. Considering the fundamentals, we
also maintain a long term Neutral recommendation on the
shares.
CITIGROUP INC (C): Free Stock Analysis Report
CAPITAL ONE FIN (COF): Free Stock Analysis
Report
HSBC HOLDINGS (HBC): Free Stock Analysis
Report
ING GROEP-ADR (ING): Free Stock Analysis
Report
MASTERCARD INC (MA): Free Stock Analysis
Report
VISA INC-A (V): Free Stock Analysis Report
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