Insure.com Announces $16 Million Asset Sale, Continuation of Business Under Life Quotes Brand Name
October 09 2009 - 4:30PM
PR Newswire (US)
DARIEN, Ill., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Insure.com, Inc.
(NASDAQ: NSUR) announced today that it has sold its Insure.com
brand name and related media assets for $16 million in cash to
QuinStreet, Inc. Insure.com, Inc. (the Company) intends to change
its corporate name to Life Quotes, Inc. and will continue its
business under its Life Quotes and Consumer Insurance Guide brand
names. The Company will retain all of its remaining balance sheet
assets, national brokerage contracts with 25 leading life insurance
companies, 50 fully licensed insurance agents, call center
operations, customer and prospect lists, and nearly all of its
current inbound affiliate and traffic partnerships. The Company
acquired the Insure.com name and website for $1.6 million in
December 2001. Revenue from this asset sale transaction will be
recorded as an extraordinary, one-time gain in the fourth quarter
of 2009. The Company does not anticipate paying any federal income
taxes on this gain because it has a current federal tax loss carry
forward of $49 million. "We have sold our Insure.com name and
specified website content in a significant cash transaction that we
think is in the best long-term interest of our shareholders,"
remarked Robert Bland, chairman and CEO of the Company. "This
transaction has other benefits to our shareholders and employees in
that it will allow us to focus on our brokerage operation and
insurance marketing businesses. As a result of this transaction, we
are projecting reduced revenues of approximately 10-15 percent with
increased marketing expenses for the next 2-6 quarters as we
rebuild under a new brand name and move from a content-based
website to a transaction-based website." Phil Perillo, CFO,
remarked, "This transaction, which calls for a $15 million cash
payment now and a $1.0 million payment in 365 days, significantly
increases our shareholders' equity and stockpile of cash. As a
result of this asset sale, the Company now has approximately $24
million of cash and investments, no debt, stockholders' equity of
$31.4 million and a book value of approximately $4.98 per share."
The Company's board of directors voted unanimously in favor of this
asset sale and intends to hire an investment banker and review all
of its options for use of the transaction proceeds, which the
Company intends to return to shareholders in some fashion. About
Insure.com Originally founded in 1984 as Quotesmith Corporation,
Insure.com owns and operates a comprehensive consumer information
service and companion insurance brokerage service that caters to
the needs of self-directed insurance shoppers. Visitors to the
company's Web site, http://www.insure.com/, are able to obtain
free, instant car insurance quotes, instant life insurance quotes,
home, business and health insurance quotes from leading insurers
and have the freedom to buy online or by phone from any company
shown. Insure.com is home to hundreds of originally authored
articles on consumer insurance topics and provides free insurance
decision-making tools that are not available from any other single
source. Insure.com generates revenues from receipt of
industry-standard commissions, including back-end bonus commissions
and volume-based contingent bonus commissions that are paid by
participating insurance companies. Shares of the Company's common
stock trade on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the symbol NSUR.
DATASOURCE: Insure.com, Inc. CONTACT: Phil Perillo, CFO of
Insure.com, Inc., +1-630-515-0170, ext. 295, Web Site:
http://insure.com/
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