Advent, Goldman Sachs to acquire TransUnion Corp for over $3 bn

Private equity firm Advent International and a Goldman Sachs unit yesterday agreed to acquire TransUnion Corp, a credit reporting and data company, in a deal worth over $3 billion in one of the largest private equity transactions of the year.

Chicago-based TransUnion's current stakeholders include Chicago-based private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners holding 51 per cent, and the remaining held by the Pritzker family, one of America's wealthiest families that owns the Hyatt hotel chain and the Marmon Group.

Founded in 1968 as a rail-car holding company by Union Tank Car Company, TransUnion was acquired in 1981 by the Marmon Group, who spun it off as a separate company under Pritzker's control in 2005.

In 2010, the Pritzker family sold controlling interest in TransUnion to Madison Dearborn Partners.

TransUnion is one of the three major credit reporting companies, along with Experian and Equifax.

It provides consumer credit and data reports, credit scores, analytical services, and decision technology to businesses. The company offers online data services to businesses to help them assess the financial viability and capacity, or risk, of prospective consumers seeking to access credit.