History
Hoover's was the brainchild of entrepreneur Gary Hoover. A veteran of Citibank and several retailers, Hoover in 1982 founded Bookstop (which would go on to become the #4 book chain in the US). During his tenure there Hoover found that his stores' books covered everything from travel to sports, but none covered companies, industries, and the people who lead them. Those subjects had always fascinated him.
After selling Bookstop to Barnes & Noble in 1989, Hoover started The Reference Press in 1990 with co-founders Alta Campbell (the company's first editor-in-chief), and Hoover's University of Chicago classmates Patrick Spain and Alan Chai. The company published its first book -- Hoover's Handbook 1991: Profiles of Over 500 Major Corporations -- later that year.
In 1991 the company partnered with Sony to create its first electronic product: Hoover's Handbook Electronic Book for the Sony Data Discman. While the product flopped, it introduced The Reference Press to electronic publishing. Frustrated with the inability of its books to reach a wide mass-market audience, the firm cut its first online distribution deals the following year with LexisNexis, Bloomberg, and AOL.
Spain became CEO in 1993 and began moving the company toward online publishing. Over the next several years, The Reference Press signed additional Internet distribution deals with CompuServe (now an AOL Time Warner division), Apple, Microsoft, and AT&T.
While these efforts increased the company's audience, The Reference Press wanted to be much bigger, much faster. In 1994 Warner Books, a unit of Time Warner, made an investment in the company. With that capital the firm launched Hoover's Online (HOL), a Web site featuring both free advertiser-supported and for-pay premium access to Hoover's company information.
By the end of 1996, the company was distributing information through more than 20 online and Web-based services. That year it changed its name to Hoover's, Inc. In 1997 Infoseek (subsequently purchased by Disney) and Media General also invested in Hoover's.
In 1998 Hoover's added e-commerce to its free and subscription business model, inking its first e-commerce deal with Amazon.com. The following year the company introduced the Hoover's Online UK Web site and added more than a dozen additional e-commerce vendors.
To acquire the capital needed to accelerate its growth Hoover's went public in mid-1999. Later that year the company launched the fifth redesign of Hoover's Online, expanding its offerings to include new features such as business news, career development, business travel, and personal finance information.
The company created Hoover's Online Europe in 2000 to pursue the European market. Hoover's also took minority stakes in SEC document search engine company 10K Wizard, content aggregator Intellifact (which later closed shop), and Netherlands-based VercomNet, a creator of professional online communities that also closed its doors. In August 2000 Hoover's purchased Powerize, a content syndication firm which was renamed Hoover's Media Technologies (HMT).
Spain stepped down as president and CEO in 2001, but remained chairman. Jeff Tarr, formerly CEO at technology support Web service all.com, took over as president and CEO. Hoover's then shut down its European operations and the HMT subsidiary and refocused on selling subscriptions to Hoover's Online.
By 2002 Tarr had added chairman to his title. Spain stayed on as a member of Hoover's board of directors. The following year Dun & Bradstreet acquired the company for $119 million, and Hoover's again redesigned its Web site.
In 2004 the company took another shot at the European market and launched a Hoover's Online UK service. Also that year, Dwayne Spradlin, former leader of online event planning service Starcite, replaced Tarr as president of Hoover's.
