Interactive Data Increases Regular Quarterly Dividend
December 05 2008 - 8:00AM
Business Wire
Interactive Data Corporation (NYSE: IDC), a leading provider of
financial market data, analytics and related services to financial
institutions, active traders and individual investors, today
announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a 33.3 percent
increase in the Company�s regular quarterly dividend to $0.20 per
share, commencing with the dividend to be paid on March 31, 2009 to
all shareholders of record at the close of business on March 2,
2009. In addition, the Board of Directors authorized an expansion
of its existing stock buyback program for the repurchase of up to
an additional two million shares of its common stock. �Increasing
our regular quarterly dividend by 33 percent reflects the
confidence we have in the prospects for our business and in our
ability to continue generating strong net cash provided by
operating activities,� stated Stuart Clark, president and chief
executive officer. �We believe that our business has the balance
sheet strength and cash generation characteristics to support our
global business development aspirations along with the dividend and
buyback activities announced today. We continue to pursue plans
involving organic growth initiatives and strategic acquisitions
that complement the recent progress we have made.� Interactive Data
entered the fourth quarter of 2008 with no outstanding debt and
$239.0 million in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
Interactive Data initiated its regular quarterly dividend in March
2007 at a rate of $0.125 per common share. The Company�s quarterly
dividend was increased 20 percent to $0.15 per common share for all
dividends paid in 2008. The March 2009 quarterly dividend
represents Interactive Data�s ninth consecutive quarterly cash
dividend. The actual declaration of future quarterly dividends, and
the establishment of record and payment dates, is subject to final
determination of the Board of Directors of Interactive Data. During
the fourth quarter of 2008 (through November 28), Interactive Data
had repurchased 363,500 shares of its common stock at an average
purchase price of $21.26, bringing the total number of common
shares repurchased this year to 1,975,463 at an average purchase
price of $26.57 per share. As of November 28, 2008, there were
93,603,132 outstanding shares of Interactive Data common stock.
Entering December 2008, there were 795,437 shares available for
repurchase under the existing stock buyback program. Repurchases
made under the expanded stock buyback program will be made in the
open market or in privately negotiated transactions from time to
time, subject to market conditions and other factors and in
compliance with applicable legal requirements. Repurchases of
common stock may also be made under a Rule 10b5-1 plan, which would
permit shares to be repurchased when Interactive Data might
otherwise be precluded from doing so under insider trading laws.
Interactive Data intends to use cash on hand to fund any purchases.
The Company is not obligated to acquire any particular amount of
common stock as a result of our stock buyback program, which may be
suspended or discontinued at any time. Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains certain forward-looking statements
within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act
of 1995 and federal securities laws, and is subject to the
safe-harbor created by such Act and laws. Forward-looking
statements include our statements discussing our goals, beliefs,
strategies, objectives, plans, future financial conditions, results
of operations and cash flows or projections, including our
statements about our prospects; our statements related to any
potential future stock repurchase transactions, including our
intention to repurchase shares of our common stock from time to
time under the stock buyback program, the source of funding for the
stock repurchase program, as well as the timing, nature and
financial impact of any such transactions related to the stock
buyback program; and statements related to potential future
dividends, including the timing, nature and financial impact of
issuing any such dividends. Our forward-looking statements are
subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and
other factors that may cause actual results to be materially
different from those contemplated by the forward-looking
statements. Such factors include, but are not limited to: (i) the
impact of cost-cutting pressures across the industries we serve;
(ii) consolidation of financial services companies, both within an
industry and across industries; (iii) our ability to maintain our
relationships with service bureaus and custodian banks; (iv) the
presence of competitors with greater financial resources than ours
and their strategic response to our services and offerings; (v) new
offerings by competitors or new technologies that could cause our
offerings or services to become less competitive or obsolete, or we
may not be able to develop new or enhanced services or offerings;
(vi) a decline in activity levels in the securities markets; (vii)
new legislation or changes in government or quasi-government rules,
regulations, directives or standards may reduce demand for our
service or increase our expenses; (viii) our ability to maintain
relationships with our key suppliers and providers of market data;
(ix) the possibility of a prolonged outage or other major
unexpected operational difficulty at any of our key facilities; (x)
our ability to negotiate and enter into strategic acquisitions or
alliances on favorable terms, if at all; (xi) our ability to
realize the anticipated benefits from any strategic acquisitions or
alliances that we enter into; (xii) the difficulty in predicting
our future cash needs; (xiii) the nature of other investment
opportunities available to us from time to time; (xiv) we provide
services to financial institutions that are subject to significant
regulatory oversight, and any investigation of us or our customers
relating to our services could be expensive, time consuming and
harm our reputation; (xv) certain of our subsidiaries are subject
to complex regulations and licensing requirements; (xvi) the risks
of doing business internationally; (xvii) our ability to attract
and retain key personnel; and (xviii) the ability of our majority
shareholder to exert influence over our affairs, including the
ability to approve or disapprove any corporate actions submitted to
a vote of our stockholders; (xix) the relative performance of the
economy and the U.S. stock market as a whole; (xx) the market price
of our common stock and other market conditions; (xxi) the
difficulty in predicting our future cash needs; (xxii) the nature
of other investment opportunities available to us from time to
time; (xxiii) our operating cash flow; and other factors identified
in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Report
on Form 10-Q filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We
undertake no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.
About Interactive Data Corporation Interactive Data Corporation
(NYSE: IDC) is a leading global provider of financial market data,
analytics and related services to financial institutions, active
traders and individual investors. The Company's businesses supply
real-time market data, time-sensitive pricing, evaluations and
reference data for millions of securities traded around the world,
including hard-to-value instruments. Many of the world's best-known
financial service and software companies subscribe to the Company's
services in support of their trading, analysis, portfolio
management and valuation activities. Through its businesses,
Interactive Data Pricing and Reference Data, Interactive Data
Real-Time Services, Interactive Data Fixed Income Analytics, and
eSignal, the Company has approximately 2,300 employees in offices
located throughout North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. The
Company is headquartered in Bedford, Mass. Pearson plc (NYSE: PSO;
LSE: PSON), an international media company, whose businesses
include the Financial Times Group, Pearson Education, and the
Penguin Group, is Interactive Data Corporation's majority
stockholder. Interactive Data Corporation is celebrating its 40th
anniversary in 2008. For more information about Interactive Data
Corporation and its businesses, please visit
www.interactivedata.com.
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