In an exclusive interview with Realty Times editor, Blanche Evans, VISTAinfo founder and CEO, Tom Gay reveals his strategy for the acquisition of Moore Corporation, Ltd. and its subsidiaries, Moore Data Management Systems and CyberHomes.

As VISTAinfo and Moore Corporation, Ltd. (MDMS) complete due diligence, stockholder approval, and the financials over the next 60 days, the merger is poised to go through. The stock market has nodded its short-term approval; both publicly traded companies are slightly up since VISTAinfo's announced intention to purchase MDMS.

According to company releases, the combined entity, yet to be named, will have more than 800 employees throughout North America, in excess of $100 million in revenue in 1999.

The new company will be dedicated to enabling real estate transactions over the Internet and will use Moore's daily access to more than 300,000 agents and key real estate franchise and related industry relationships as its cornerstone. Moore currently supports over half of the largest MLSs in the country with proprietary information systems, giving it the largest market share of information system providers. In addition, CyberHomes, a national listing service, offers one-hour listing postings and a consumer-oriented MLS to the public.

Most Realtors are familiar with MDMS, but few will know VISTAinfo. Who are they? Primarily a commercial real estate service provider, VISTAinfo provides "the largest database of essential property due diligence and disclosure information available in the real estate world to consumers and many of the largest financial, insurance and engineering companies in the United States," according to Gay. In essence, VISTAinfo helps customers determine the insurability or residential or commercial properties.

"I started it in early 90s," explains Gay. "I've been in real estate information business since the middle '70s, then I sold to Equifax. Then it was National Decision Systems. I was needing to get out and do something again, so I started Vista. Vista has evolved to be the leading providers of property risk information, and we serve the commercial as well as the residential market. Our purpose is to help people primarily on commercial side of a property transaction determine the value, use, insurability, and desirability as they go about making an acquisition.

"We deliver confidence to people who are parties to the real estate transaction. We look at millions of opportunities for lenders, insurers, Realtors, brokers, agents, REITs and securities industry, and consumers to help them make informed decisions as the property."

VISTAinfo's data is significantly different from rendering an appraisal, says Gay. "We tell a property buyer, if you can type an address into a computer, we can tell you all the information that is available that will affect your family's use of the property. It's the ultimate property information."

Gay's vision is that with the acquisition of MDMS, VISTAinfo will be positioned to lead the way in online transaction management, using the Internet as its conference room. His goal is improved efficiency in real estate and related transactions. The Realtor will benefit, and so will the consumer. So will all parties to the real estate transaction who can deliver their reports, documents, and communicate online.

Real estate databases, from MDMS's proprietary MLS systems to VISTAinfo's real estate, environmental and insurance underwriting information, will be broadened to include new service providers from financial, insurance, legal, environmental and related home services industries to help each group more effectively participate in the real estate transaction. In effect, the Web will connect consumers, real estate professionals and service providers.

VISTAinfo's disclosure products found at VistaDisclosure.com have just been endorsed by the California Association of REALTORS® where disclosure laws are extensive, and compliance strictly enforced. "When we looked at Moore and their clients, we saw a very nice fit. We could combine our respective services into new packages that brings more power to the agent's desktop so they can close more sales."

"Moore has the largest collection of properties for sale," reasons Gay. "We want to help the Realtor get that right-to-know information earlier in the game so they can make a sale more effectively."

Gay's plan is a departure for Moore's business model which has been based on planned phased roll-outs of software products taken from various vendors and adopted to Moore's proprietary system designs for individual MLSs. Gay says that in the future, all Moore's products will be Internet-based.

"There is a lot of change going on based on the impact of the Internet," explains Gay. "A fair amount of speculation is that the Internet will diminish the importance of the agent.

"We disagree with that. Buying a home requires the special talents of an agent. You only make this decision once every 7 years. Moore's and Vista's position is focused on being more effective in this Web economy. We think the Internet will enhance the agent. That is the game we are in. And that is a song no one else is singing. Frankly, the skills we have and the agent has need to be united for the benefit of the consumers. The broker agent still has to be in the game, and they will be in the game as far as we can see into the future."

"If you consider Moore's franchise, getting information to agents and brokers efficiently and helping them manage their day to day work flow, that is also Vista's job - delivering a hands-on transaction. With residential disclosure, our largest growth segment is the agent and brokers."

"All the Web guys are out there trying to go around the broker and go direct to the consumer, and you can look at all the .coms, and none of them are focusing on the agent. Vista deals with hundreds of lenders, insurers, and it is our goal to make that a set of features."

"I want to lead the industry. If we don't, we will be looking into somebody else's tailpipe."