founded conway arkansas 1969 headquarters little rock arkansas united states key people scott howe ceo products personicx abilitec infobase customer information infrastructure cii audience operating system aos revenue 1.15 billion usd 2012 number of employees 4 320 2015 03 31 website www.acxiom.com acxiom corporation is a marketing technology and services company with offices in the united states europe asia and south america . acxiom offers marketing and information management services including multichannel marketing addressable advertising and database management . acxiom collects analyzes and parses customer and business information for clients helping them to target advertising campaigns score leads and more . 2 contents 1 company 2 history 3 controversy 4 security 5 notes 6 references 7 external links company edit acxiom client base in the united states consists primarily of companies in the financial services insurance information services direct marketing media retail consumer packaged goods technology automotive healthcare travel and telecommunications industries and the government sector . 3 it has been described as one of the biggest companies you ve never heard of . 4 in addition to collecting information about people the company helps marketers anticipate the needs of consumers according to the documentary the persuaders . as the world s largest processor of consumer data 5 acxiom has identified 70 types of consumers with its segmentation product personicx . in his 2015 book data and goliath american privacy expert bruce schneier wrote that acxiom sells companies lists of consumers that include potential inheritor adult with senior parent as well as addresses of households with a diabetic focus or senior needs . 6 forrester research named acxiom one of the largest database marketing services and technology providers in the world and stated that the company demonstrated surprising nimbleness in modernizing its offering and arguably leads the industry with its digital solutions in their january 2011 report the forrester wave us database marketing service providers q1 2011 . 7 acxiom is a 1.15 billion a year company representing more than 12 percent of the direct marketing services sector s 11 billion in estimated annual sales . the company is the subject of the vienna teng song the hymn of acxiom from her 2013 album aims . acxiom building in downtown little rock arkansas 2007 history edit founded as demographics in 1969 by charles d. ward in conway arkansas acxiom is headquartered in little rock arkansas united states . 8 the company has additional u.s. offices in chicago illinois ; new york new york ; foster city california ; and nashville tennessee . international offices are located in the united kingdom france germany netherlands poland australia china and brazil . services are available to companies in other countries . in november 1997 acxiom completed the acquisition of buckley dement l.p. 9 in may 1998 acxiom made the announcement that it would acquire one of its competitors may & speh . 10 in early 2004 acxiom acquired part of claritas a european data provider . 11 in 2005 acxiom acquired digital impact and integrated its digital and online services into its business . in early 2006 emc corporation acquired acxiom s information grid software in a 30 million deal . however emc canceled the software purchase after 2 years of development because the software was not up to commercial software standards essentially giving back the grid technology software to acxiom 12 on may 16 2007 acxiom agreed to be bought by leading investment firms silver lake partners and valueact capital in an all cash deal valued at 3 billion including the assumption of about 756 million of debt . 13 on october 1 2007 however a press release announced that the takeover agreement was to be terminated and charles morgan would retire as acxiom s company leader upon the selection of a successor . on january 17 2008 acxiom named john meyer from alcatel lucent as new ceo and president effective february 4 2008 . 14 on july 11 2008 acxiom acquired choicepoint s database marketing solutions division adding seven clients from industries including banking insurance and media . 15 on october 9 2008 acxiom announced it had entered into a contract with xsellnet 1 to deliver and manage the distribution of real time customer data and analytics to the retail auto dealer industry throughout the united states . the collaboration is co branded as x12 powered by acxiom . in 2010 acxiom acquired part of godigital a brazilian direct marketing and data quality company . on march 30 2011 acxiom named jerry gramaglia as interim ceo . 16 on july 27 2011 acxiom named marketing and advertising veteran scott e. howe as the company s chief executive officer and president . 17 on january 11 2012 acxiom named warren c. jenson as the company s chief financial officer and executive vice president . 18 in february 2012 acxiom announced the closing of the sale of its background screening business acxiom information security services aiss . 3 on april 19 2012 acxiom announced dr. phil mui as the company s new chief product and engineering officer . prior to joining acxiom mui was the group product manager for google analytics . 19 on may 14 2014 acxiom announced that it had acquired liveramp a company spun out of rapleaf and co founded by auren hoffman for 310 million . 20 controversy edit in 2003 the electronic privacy information center filed a complaint before the federal trade commission against acxiom and jetblue airways alleging the companies provided consumer information to torch concepts a company hired by the united states army to determine how information from public and private records might be analyzed to help defend military bases from attack by terrorists and other adversaries . 21 according to the complaint acxiom s activities constituted unfair and deceptive trade practices as acxiom has publicly represented its belief that individuals should have notice about how information about them is used and have choices about that dissemination and has stated that it does not permit clients to make non public information available to individuals yet acxiom proceeded to sell information to torch concepts without obtaining consent an ability to opt out or furnishing notice to the affected consumers . the ftc took no action against acxiom which had responded that it had followed its privacy principles and was not deceptive in its business practices . torch concepts was acting under contract to the department of defense in their efforts to research ways to improve military base security a company spokesman said . our policy clearly states that we provide information products which include financial information social security number and other related information where permitted by law and that this information is provided to government agencies for the purposes of verifying information employment screening and assisting law enforcement . 22 acxiom has a history of making it difficult for consumers to remove themselves from acxiom s marketing lists . 23 in 2005 acxiom was a nominee for the big brother awards for worst corporate invader for a tradition of data brokering . 24 in 2013 acxiom was among nine companies that the federal trade commission is investigating to see how they collect and use consumer data . 25 security edit in 2003 more than 1.6 billion customer records were stolen during the transmission of information to and from acxiom s clients ; the information included names addresses and e mail addresses . prosecutors described the 2006 case against the hacker accused of stealing the data as the largest ever invasion and theft of personal data ever tried . 26 the stolen data only came to light during an investigation of a separate data theft incident . 27 based on their investigation prosecutors said there was no risk of identity theft or harm to individuals based on the breaches . they also praised acxiom for being aggressive in pursuing the hackers and cooperating with authorities . the positive outcome of this investigation is testament to the strong partnerships we have established with our counterparts at the headquarters and field offices of various organizations from the fbi and department of justice to the internal revenue service and u.s. attorneys office in little rock said k. c. crowley special agent in charge of secret service s little rock field office . furthermore i commend acxiom corporation for their cooperation and responsible approach to the situation . acxiom s quick response in contacting federal investigators after determining there had been a network intrusion should serve as a model for others in similar circumstances . 28 the two primary hackers were sentenced to lengthy 8 years prison terms . 29 30 notes edit google finance nasdaq acxm . google finance . retrieved 2 december 2013 . acxiom names scott howe ceo a b acxiom corp. at nytimes.com frontline s the persuaders . corporation for public broadcasting . november 9 2004 . archived from the original on 29 june 2007 . retrieved 2007 08 01 . but where did all this information come from how did political parties and advocacy groups know whom to reach with what message the answer to that question begins here . the acxiom corporation of little rock arkansas is one of the biggest companies you ve never heard of . behar richard february 23 2004 . never heard of acxiom chances are it s heard of you . how a little known little rock company the world s largest processor of consumer data found itself at the center of a very big national security debate . cnn . schneier bruce 2015 . data and goliath the hidden battles to collect your data and control your world . new york w.w. norton & company . isbn 978 039324481 6 . acxiom s business transformation confirmed by independent research firm s evaluation press release . acxiom corporation . jan 13 2011 . retrieved 2012 08 02 . acxiom at fundinguniverse.com acxiom r corporation acquires buckley dement l.p. acquisition expands acxiom s portfolio to provide data and database solutions to health care and pharmaceutical companies . november 3 1997 . retrieved jul 31 2013 . acxiom to buy may & speh for 600 million . may 28 1998 . retrieved jul 25 2013 . acxiom completes the acquisition of claritas europe press release . acxiom corporation . january 6 2004 . retrieved 2007 08 07 . emc and acxiom partner to accelerate development and deployment of grid based information infrastructure press release . acxiom corporation . january 5 2006 . retrieved 2007 08 07 . emc acquires information grid software from acxiom acxiom agrees to be acquired by silver lake and valueact capital for 3.0 billion press release . acxiom corporation . may 16 2007 . retrieved 2007 08 01 . acxiom names john meyer as new ceo and president press release . acxiom corporation . january 17 2008 . retrieved 2008 01 17 . chantal tod . acxiom acquires choicepoint s database marketing solutions division . direct marketing news . acxiom names jerry gramaglia as interim ceo press release . acxiom corporation . march 30 2011 . retrieved 2011 03 31 . acxiom names former microsoft exec scott howe as ceo acxiom names former amazon exec warren c. jenson cfo googler phil mui joins acxiom as chief product and engineering officer acxiom signs agreement to acquire liveramp epic complaint against jetblue airways and acxiom corp. to the federal trade commission associated press acxiom denies invading airline passengers privacy acxiom opts out of opt out . wired . november 17 2003 . retrieved july 15 2014 . pi announces u.s. big brother awards winners for 2005 archived august 14 2007 at the wayback machine . what you didn t post facebook may still know 26 03 2013 acxiom database hacker jailed for 8 years the register chats led to acxiom hacker bust u.s. secret service news release july 21 2004 archived september 16 2008 at the wayback machine . bremner kristin acxiom hacker gets prison sentence dmnews.com direct marketing march 28