Jeffrey Ganek

A forerunner in identity resolution, Neustar provides the information and technology necessary to establish reliable connections between businesses and individuals at crucial times. The company provides Industry-leading services in Marketing, Risk, Communications, and Security that connect information about people, devices, and places in a responsible manner. The company serves around 60 of the Fortune 100 companies globally.

About The Company

American technology business Neustar offers real-time data and analytics for the security, digital efficiency, defense, telecoms, entertainment, and marketing sectors. It also offers directory and clearinghouse services to the international communications and Internet sectors. TIll 2018 Neustar also served as the North American Numbering Plan Administrator (NANP) for the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) of the USA. Their initial agreement was made in 1997, and it was extended through its spinoff in 1999, 2004, and 2012. Somos, Inc. has taken its place as of 2019.

History

In 1998, Neustar was established in Delaware as a division of Lockheed Martin Corporation. It was spun out in order to maintain the neutrality required by its original founding contract with the country’s telecom operators. In 2006, it acquired Followap, a UK-based provider of instant phone texting services. Lisa Hook was appointed the company’s CEO and President in 2010. According to a January 2010 article in The Washington Post, Neustar was picked by a group of tech executives and Hollywood studios to run a system that would allow customers to watch films and other video media from a variety of digital devices. “UltraViolet” was the name of this system. With regard to their caller identification assets, Neustar and Transaction Network Services agreed to an asset acquisition agreement in 2015. Neustar intended to divide itself into two separate, publicly traded businesses the following year. Later that year, Golden Gate Capital and GIC declared that they would acquire all of Neustar’s publicly traded shares for about $2.9 billion. The deal was completed by the end of August 2017. In 2016 Neustar lost e its NPAC contract to Telcordia, a subsidiary of Ericsson. Since 1997, Neustar had managed the number portability system. In 2018, Neustar acquired Verisign’s security services client deals. Later, Neustar acquired TRUSTID, a company that offers contact centers caller verification, and fraud prevention services. In 2020, GoDaddy acquired Neustar’s domain name registration company, which was later rebranded as GoDaddy Registry. In 2021, TransUnion paid $3.1 billion to acquire Neustar’s core business. However, GIC and Golden Gate Capital continued to own Neustar Security Services as a portfolio company, excluding it from the transaction.

Business

Neustar’s primary business from 1998 to 2015 was the management of the NANP, which includes the upkeep of the databases and system of directories that control the phone zip codes and centralized codes in North America. This makes it possible for calls to be routed among thousands of different communication service providers. Additionally, Neustar offered clearinghouse services to new CSPs, such as VoIP service providers, mobile operators, cable television providers, and Internet service providers (ISPs). A number of top-level domains, such as.biz,.us (on behalf of the US Department of Commerce),.co,.NYC (on behalf of NY City), and .in (on behalf of the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI)), are managed by Neustar.

Founder – Jeffrey Ganek

Between 1995 to 2010, Jeffrey Ganek served as Neustar’s founder, chairman, and CEO. In 1999, Ganek oversaw a management buy-out of Neustar, which he had established as a separate division within Lockheed Martin.

CEO – Charles E. Gottdiener

Charles Gottdiener is the CEO of Neustar since 2018. Gottdiener previously worked as an MD at Providence Equity Partners, where he held the positions of Head of Portfolio Operations and COO. A number of Providence portfolio firms, like Blackboard, VRAD, SRA International, and Ascend Learning, had him on their boards or as their interim CEO.