TFS' Investext, Internet Securities Join Forces

Internet Securities (ISI) has teamed up with Thomson Financial Services' Investext Group and launched an Internet-based broker research report distribution service, dubbed the Strategy Series. The service delivers reports from a majority of Investext's 300-plus stable of contributors and is being marketed to corporate finance and mergers and acquisitions departments at investment banks and publicly traded companies.

The Internet service will deliver reports from most of Investext's contributors, which include Alex. Brown, Bear Stearns, CS First Boston, Hambrecht & Quist, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and PaineWebber. But the research will not be updated in real-time, says Gary Mueller, founder and chief executive at ISI. Industry news from Investext will be updated daily and brokerage reports will be updated weekly, he says.

"Our aim is not to be like a First Call.... Our target market is not the institutional investors," says Mueller. TFS' First Call offers the Research Direct service which delivers full-text broker research reports to the buy side. Investext is TFS' online database of information on companies, industries, products and international regions. It is available via dedicated line or CD-ROM. ISI has been in the Internet-delivered data business since January 1994 (see related story).

ISI's joint venture with Investext is not surprising since at least three ex-Thomson executives now receive their paychecks from ISI. Jeff Parker, founder of TFS' Technical Data and First Call divisions, sits on the board of directors at ISI. "We've tapped [Parker] quite extensively in terms of his knowledge and his contacts and everything that he brings to the table," says Mueller.

Cameron Lochhead, senior vice president at ISI, was formerly vice president and general manager of Technical Data. Michael Fix, vice president in charge of ISI's European offices, had been managing director of TFS' Electronic Settlements Group in Europe. Both left TFS this spring.

The Strategy Series of data products is being sold in three separate industry sets--biochemical, telecommunications and computers and electronics, says Gary Halliwell, vice president at Investext.

Internet Securities and Investext plan to offer three subscriber packages: One for $300 a month, another for $800 a month and the third for $1,995 a month. Currently, only the first option is available, says Mueller. That option gives users access to the Investext database and one industry-specific news feed. Reports are retrievable for an additional charge on a per-report or per-page basis--$45 for a company report, $50 for an industry report under 15 pages, $75 for an industry report over 15 pages or $5.95 a page. The second option includes 10 industry reports for no extra charge. The third includes all three industry news feeds, two company reports for each industry and 20 industry reports.