USMA Merges with DAC Services to Form North America's Leading Vertical Market Focussed Pre-Employment Screening Company.

Business Editors

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 20, 2000

Two leading North American pre-employment screening companies, United States Mutual Association (USMA) and DAC Services (DAC), announced they are merging to form the leading pre-employment screening company focused on specific vertical markets, Total Information Services Inc. (TISI).

Founded in 1996, USMA has nine regional sales and service centers serving more than 100 major retailers and distribution service centers. The USMA database includes over 700,000 proprietary records of either theft incidents or dishonest employee incidents and is the only truly national database serving the traditional retail industry. USMA is uniquely positioned to service the burgeoning e-tailing sector in the critical physical distribution area.

DAC Services, founded in 1981, has for many years been the preeminent employment screening service for the American Trucking Industry. Its proprietary database of more than 3,000,000 employment history records is supplemented by a wide range of public record information all serving the needs of more than 15,000 trucking companies nationwide.

DAC and USMA are distinguished by their ability to cooperate with their customers to access proprietary employment history data. This data is packaged with public record data such as criminal records, MVRS, social security number and credit records to give customers the most complete profile of a prospective employee available today. Both companies maintain contributory databases, whereby clients agree to contribute their proprietary company files to the database in return for access.

In addition to USMA and DAC, Total Information Services will also focus on building specific vertical market pre-employment screening services for the Gaming (WGN), Healthcare (HES), Banking, Aviation, Staffing and Technology markets. Through its subsidiary company, Record Search Inc. (RSI), TISI will serve the broader pre-employment screening market; provide a comprehensive criminal record search capability via Crimesearch Inc.; and offer America@s best drug test compliance program through STA United.

"USMA and DAC are market leaders in complementary spheres and therefore a perfect match" said Dick Wimbish, TISI's President. "USMA enhances our vertical market presence by adding leadership in the retail industry, which comprises almost one third of US GDP and employs 20% of the U.S. workforce. We're delighted to join forces with a company that has risen in just a few years to a preeminent position in this major market."

Bill Haddad, Vice Chairman of USMA, added, "DAC's reputation for quality and service is second to none. DAC's investment in technology, systems and customer service will be of incalculable value to USMA and enable the company to achieve the next level of development. It is going to be a very productive marriage for both the companies and their customers."

David Cleveland, newly appointed President of USMA, said, "In this union of a longstanding industry leader and an all-star relative newcomer, I look forward to the challenge of leveraging USMA's double-digit revenue growth with DAC's tremendous resources of data, execution and relationships."

Total Information Services Inc. is a subsidiary of The Official Information Company, headquartered in New York, specializing in collecting a wide range of data and information electronically, adding value by customizing it and then distributing it primarily electronically to customers worldwide. Focused exclusively on the business to business market The Official Informat ion Company has three major subsidiaries:-

-- Total information Services Inc. The world's largest online supplier of
specialized pre@@employment screening information to selected vertical markets.


-- Galaxy Information Services LLC The world's leading supplier of e@@solutions
for event registration, lead management and housing.

-- GEM Communications LLC the market leader in trade show specialist
publications and Gaming industry publishing and trade show organizing.

TOIC is majority owned by VS&A Communication Partners II, L.P., the private equity affiliate of Veronis Suhler. Veronis Suhler (www.veronissuhler.com) is an independent merchant bank dedicated exclusively to the media, communications, and information industries. The firm specializes in mergers and acquisitions, the sale of media properties and companies, joint ventures, and management buy@@outs.