HomeSeekers.com Inc. (Nasdaq: HMSK) announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire privately held ISG Inc., an electronic forms and systems integration company operating under the name of Formulator.

The transaction will be a stock-for-stock deal and is expected to close over the next several weeks. ISG, with the leading market share in electronic forms, has experienced 50 percent revenue growth over the past year, which is expected to accelerate given the real estate community's rapid acceptance of automated processes.

Using ISG's Formulator(TM)® software, data is entered only once and is systematically distributed to the appropriate forms and applications of the real estate transaction. The elimination of repetitive, time-consuming entries speeds up the real estate transaction process and makes the experience more efficient and enjoyable for the customer and agent.

"The acquisition of ISG's technology will position HomeSeekers.com to take the first important step towards offering complete electronic processing of complex and paper-intensive real estate transactions,'' stated Greg Costley, HomeSeekers.com's chairman and chief executive officer.

"We intend to actively cross-sell HomeSeekers.com Web-site capabilities to the 40,000 agents currently served by ISG.''

ISG is a rapidly growing e-transaction company with 45 percent of its business coming from the sale of electronic forms (e-forms) and the remaining percentage from net-worth integration services and Web development.

ISG commands more than 20 percent share of the e-forms market and has quickly become the standard in Florida and North Carolina. ISG's technology is unique in its capacity to provide a fully networked Web connection, with e-mail capabilities, in an easy- and quick-to-use software solution.

Currently, HomeSeekers.com's suite of technology solutions serves a network of 130,000 agents through its XMLSweb(TM) multilisting service product and 20,000 agents through its real estate industry publications. HomeSeekers.com has also created and hosted Web sites for 25,000 agents and provides e-mail service to 30,000 agents.

With the acquisition of ISG, HomeSeekers.com will add a significant time-saving feature to its suite of products and services for real estate industry professionals. HomeSeekers.com will now have the opportunity to cross-sell its other technologies into ISG's existing customer base of more than 40,000 agents.

"HomeSeekers.com is quickly penetrating the real estate community, estimated to total in excess of 700,000 registered agents,'' added Costley. "We are pleased to see the speed at which agents are embracing HomeSeekers.com's technology solutions to empower their businesses.''

Published: March 2, 2000

Use of this article without permission is a violation of federal copyright laws.