The Data-Star Buy Out: A New Global Alliance.

The article presents information on the purchase of Data-Star, the text and bibliographic online service, by Knight-Ridder Inc. The Data-Star business, based in Bern, Switzerland, was purchased from Motor-Columbus, the Swiss engineering technology firm. According to details released by Knight-Ridder, they have acquired the equity of Radio Schweiz AG whose principle business is Data-Star. In addition to Data-Star the sale includes Tradstat, Data-Mail, and the telecommunications business of RadioSuisse. Terms of the sale were not disclosed. Knight-Ridder plans to build on the individual strengths of the two companies with Dialog and Data-Star operating jointly in the service and sales areas. Dialog and its parent Knight-Ridder want a bigger part of the international pie. Data-Star's customer base covers not only Europe, but the U.S. and Japan. Data-Star has had a strong foothold in the European market, while Dialog, though sharing some of that market, has dominated the U.S. Most likely, as a result of this acquisition Dialog will emerge with a strong presence in the international market and Data-Star will gain in the U.S. market, which is the purpose of an acquisition.