[May 24] Business information provider
Hoover’s, Inc. announced
a European initiative Wednesday, opening London-based subsidiary
Hoover’s Online Europe Limited, appointing a European managing
director, and launching hoovers.co.uk.
Heading Hoover’s in Europe is Gehan Talwatte, described by
Chief Executive Patrick Spain as a seasoned executive from the
business information and research industry. Talwatte ran
Dun & Bradstreet’s e-commerce business in Europe before
founding the new D&B unit eccelerate.com.
“Hoover’s is establishing a major presence in Europe to address
an economy as large as the U.S.’s, but with an additional 100
million potential customers,” said Talwatte.
Although it is just the first in a series of overseas moves
planned by Hoover’s Online, the European operation is clearly
of major importance to the company. According to predictions
by Forrester Research, the European business market for e-commerce
will expand to $1.6 trillion by 2004.
At hoovers.co.uk, editors have created an extensive directory
of links to the top European business sites, with other links
to worldwide business events, jobs and travel information,
financial and government sites, stock markets and exchanges.
With its third-party content and tools, and proprietary content
from Hoover’s Online, hoovers.co.uk should prove to be a
popular resource for U.K. businesses — and for companies
that want to trade with the U.K. Its total coverage looks at
more than 50,000 enterprises worldwide.
Patrick Spain said the European initiative enabled Hoover’s
to plant the flag as the ‘global’ portal for business people.
“As part of our international growth initiative, we will continue
to target every major region in Europe where we see an opportunity
for the Internet to make business people more productive,” said
Spain.
Investors in Hoover’s include Time Warner, Media General, NBC,
Knowledge Universe, and Nextera Enterprises.