Quote.com Drops Out of Merger Talks, Recruits CEO

Jan 14 1999

Quote.com announced Thursday its appointment of Robert Honeycutt to the position of president and CEO. Honeycutt had been COO at Barra, a financial-information provider for institutional investors. After several months of serious acquisition talks, Quote.com also said that it would remain an independent company.

"We decided our technology and expertise had a lot of value, and that we could execute better alone," says acting CEO Chris Cooper. Cooper says Quote.com's board of directors found the company's current financial position strong enough to remain independent.

Although no alternative financing plans are currently in place, Honeycutt confirms that an IPO is on the company's radar screen. But it's not the only option. "We're open to all possibilities," he says.

Cooper, Quote.com's founder, has been acting CEO since Tom Henry vacated the position in November of 1997. Honeycutt has been a Quote.com board member since 1996. Cooper will remain a member of the board, and will continue to work for the company on product development, external communications and corporate development.

"I've been trying to get [Honeycutt] to join us for two years," Cooper says. "I finally convinced him to do it." Honeycutt says his prior resistance to the move was due to the strength of his commitments to Barra. Now, he says, he's ready for the next challenge.

Honeycutt will join the company full-time on Feb. 2. His board involvement has familiarized him with the company's proprietary technology and strategy. His initial focus will be on the improvement of that technology's delivery.

"I think we've done all the fundamentals right," he says. "I'm going to focus on the user experience, on speeding up the site, and on more consumer-oriented marketing."

Quote.com has made headlines in recent months following reports that the company was in talks to be acquired. Cooper confirmed the reports in a December interview with The Standard, although he would not comment on the suitors' identities. Intuit , E-Trade and CNBC are among those reported to have been in talks.

"We had more than one party approaching us," Cooper says.

Quote.com has raised $10 million in three rounds of financing since it was founded in 1993. The most recent round of $3 million was completed in October of 1997. The company's investors include Sequoia Capital , Highland Capital, Shawmut Capital and Barra. When its 1998 fiscal year ended in September, Quote.com had generated $11.5 million in revenue, up from the previous year's $7 million.

Honeycutt spent the last seven years in various positions at Barra. Prior to that he worked in investment banking at Hambrecht & Quist.