Intersections Inc. / INTX

About Intersections Inc.

14901 Bogle Dr., Chantilly, Va. 20151
www.intersections.com | 703-488-6100 | Founded: 1996

Industry: Financial Services | Category: Top 100 Companies

Ten-year-old Intersections, which went public two years ago, seeks to benefit from a growth market: identity theft. In 2005, a new federal law requiring credit-reporting agencies to provide credit reports helped heighten consumer awareness of the problem. The company, which provides daily credit checks and fraud insurance, had about 3.6 million customers at the end of 2005, up from 2.9 million customers in 2004 and 2.3 million in 2003.
Competition continues to grow, however, and the company lost a big contract to provide services to American Express customers, a loss that company officials say likely will cause its customer base to dip, at least temporarily. But the company also signed contracts with two of the nation's biggest banks in the second half of 2005, though it said it will not name names until later this year. Those contracts promise to offset and possibly exceed losses from the American Express account, though typically it takes a year from the signing of a new contract before new customers materialize, according to company chief executive and co-founder Michael R. Stanfield.
And profit growth might not match growth in new customers, despite the company's effort to develop new protection products, company executives said. That's because of investments in new technology the company must make to keep pace and expand in consumer markets.
The company earned $12.5 million on revenue of $165.2 million in 2005, compared with a profit of $10.9 million on revenue of $152.9 million in 2004. Much of 2005's increase in revenue came from American Background Information Services Inc., which Intersections bought in November 2004.

2007 Financial Data

Total employees: 630 | Local employees: 355