Stockpoint
| Company type | Private (before acquisition) |
|---|---|
| Industry | Financial data services, Software as a service (SaaS) |
| Founded | 1993 (Neural Applications Corporation), 1994 (Ethos Corporation) |
| Founder | Patrick Connolly, Sean John Connolly, Chris Dominguez, Michael Bloom (Ethos); Harry O. Hefter, Robert Staib, William Staib (Neural) |
| Fate | Acquired by ScreamingMedia in 2001; later integrated into Dow Jones Client Solutions and Interactive Data Corporation |
| Headquarters | San Francisco (after Ethos moved headquarters) , United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | William Staib (CEO), Scott Porter (CFO), Luan A. Cox (EVP Sales), Harry Hefter (Chairman) |
| Products | Online financial data services including quotes, charting tools, portfolio management, SaaS market data solutions |
Number of employees | 134 (2000) |
Stockpoint delivered online financial data services such as quotes, charting tools, and portfolio management through platforms like InvestorsEdge.com and Stockpoint.com. Additionally, it provided SaaS-based market data solutions to more than 200 websites, including clients like Barclays Global Investors, Piper Jaffray, the San Francisco Chronicle, and Wired News.
Following its acquisition by Dow Jones, Stockpoint was integrated into Dow Jones Client Solutions, a unit within News Corporation, and was subsequently incorporated into Interactive Data Corporation.
Origins
Stockpoint's roots trace back to Ethos Corporation (operating as InvestorsEdge), established in 1994 in California by Patrick Connolly, Sean John Connolly, Chris Dominguez, and Michael Bloom. Parallelly, Neural Applications Corporation was founded in Iowa in 1993 by Harry O. Hefter, Robert Staib, and William Staib with financial support from private equity firm Equity Dynamics. Early contributors to the team also included Matthew Barry, Laura Watts, Justin Grant, among others.
After a short stint in Mill Valley, Ethos moved its headquarters to San Francisco’s Financial District. The startup embraced an informal work culture where engineers often took on office setup tasks and urgent software bugs frequently interrupted meetings. Strategic alliances with Hewlett Packard and Microsoft enhanced Ethos’ reputation and enabled it to operate efficiently on a constrained budget.
In contrast, Neural upheld a more structured atmosphere focused on industrial data-mining applications. In 1995, Neural developed a Java-based financial product that launched as NetProphet in April 1996.
Toward the end of 1996, Ethos and Neural formed a strategic partnership to merge Ethos’ marketing capabilities and InvestorsEdge.com presence with Neural’s technical expertise and infrastructure. This alliance culminated in Neural acquiring Ethos through a pooling of interests transaction on May 5, 1997.
Adoption of Stockpoint brand and expansion of SaaS offerings
The name “StockPoint” was introduced on October 1, 1997, representing the integration of Ethos’ InvestorsEdge website with Neural’s Java-driven NetProphet charting and trading platform. Shortly after, on October 20, 1997, Neural rebranded its entire financial services division as “Stockpoint.”
Starting in 1998, Stockpoint experienced rapid expansion. Under the sales leadership of Luan Cox, quarterly revenues surged from $462,000 in mid-1998 to $6.8 million by the close of 2001—equivalent to an annualized $27 million. In September 1999, Neural formally changed its corporate name to Stockpoint to underscore its concentration on financial services.
During the intense growth phase from 1998 through 2001, Stockpoint significantly enlarged its workforce and implemented advanced business operations. The company filed for an initial public offering on March 31, 2000, employing 134 staff members distributed across Coralville (Iowa), San Francisco, New York City, and London offices.
This timeframe also involved key leadership transitions as some original founders from both Ethos and Neural exited to pursue new ventures. The final SEC Form S-1 filing submitted in September 2000 identified principal executives including CEO William Staib, CFO Scott Porter, EVP of Sales Luan A. Cox, Chairman Harry Hefter, along with external board members.
Although Stockpoint maintained a stable portfolio of enterprise clients secured by multiyear agreements, it was unable to proceed with the IPO due to adverse market conditions following the dot-com crash and consequently withdrew its registration in April 2001.
Acquisitions and Subsequent Developments
In August 2001, content aggregator ScreamingMedia acquired Stockpoint for $21 million. Key executives from Stockpoint stayed on to oversee the merged organization's technology, sales, and content divisions.
The following year, ScreamingMedia underwent a rebranding to become Pinnacor, which was then purchased by MarketWatch in 2003 for $103 million. Over time, traffic from stockpoint.com was consolidated into marketwatch.com, although Stockpoint's SaaS solutions continued to operate independently.
In 2004, Dow Jones acquired MarketWatch for $519 million, maintaining Stockpoint's SaaS services under the Dow Jones Client Solutions umbrella.
News Corp took over Dow Jones in 2007. Subsequently, some of the former Stockpoint assets managed by Dow Jones Client Solutions were divested to Interactive Data Corporation in 2009.
Products
Stockpoint's operations were divided into two primary areas:
- A B2C platform initially launched as InvestorsEdge.com in 1995 and rebranded to Stockpoint.com in 1997. This site offered complimentary stock quotes, historical charting, mutual fund comparisons, and financial news. Early competitors included Quote.com and MSN Investor.
- A SaaS platform designed to allow businesses to embed financial data within their websites. Notable clients encompassed the San Francisco Chronicle and Wired News, along with corporate intranet systems monitoring mutual fund performance for employee 401(k) plans. By the late 1990s, Stockpoint had established itself as a prominent SaaS provider of market data tools aimed at banks and brokerage firms serving retail investors.
In 1997, Stockpoint introduced technology that drastically lowered customization expenses for SaaS customers, fueling expansion and profitability in this sector. Meanwhile, heightened competition compressed margins on the B2C website, prompting a strategic shift toward tailored SaaS solutions. The B2C platform functioned as a pilot environment for new SaaS features until it was discontinued following MarketWatch’s acquisition in 2003; however, the SaaS services persisted beyond that point.