ISO Acquires AIR

NU Online News Service, May 15, 10:39 a.m.EST?Insurance Services Office Inc. in Jersey City, N.J.,announced yesterday that it acquired Applied Insurance Research, aprovider of catastrophe and weather risk modeling services andsoftware.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

AIR, which provides risk-assessment and management technologyfor natural hazards in the United States and 40 countriesworldwide, will continue to operate as an independent, stand-aloneentity.

Company founder Karen Clark will continue to head AIR aspresident and chief executive officer, and the firm will maintainits offices in Boston, San Francisco, London and Hyderabad,India.

ISO said that the deal signals ISO's and AIR's "stepped upcommitment" to help the property-casualty industry and otherindustries to manage extreme-event losses, which are occurring withincreased frequency and intensity.

Frank J. Coyne, president and chief executive officer of ISO,cited AIR's "outstanding leadership and proven management team" asmajor reasons for ISO's decision to buy the 15-year-old firm. "AIRstands out because its topflight people make it extremelysuccessful in a business of growing complexity and importance," hesaid.

Ms. Clark noted that linking to ISO's massive databases wouldenable AIR to leverage its technology to more lines ofbusiness.

"Property-casualty insurers, reinsurers, risk managers andfinancial services entities have come to rely on catastrophemodeling technology to manage extreme event risk due to naturalhazards. September 11 made it painfully clear that lines ofbusiness other than commercial and personal property need to bemanaged with the same sophisticated, scientific technologycompanies now use for property business," Ms. Clark said.

AIR's existing models for catastrophe and weather risk simulatelosses from natural catastrophes such as hurricanes, hail,tornadoes, windstorms, floods and earthquakes in more than 40countries.