Compete Appoints Lincoln Merrihew to Head Automotive Practice; Merrihew to Spearhead Industry-wide Adoption of Compete's Automotive Intelligence Offerings

    BOSTON--July 23, 2002--Compete, Inc., a leading business intelligence firm that provides automotive, financial services, retail, and media/entertainment companies with data-driven insights and strategies to optimize key business decisions, today announced that Lincoln Merrihew has joined the company as Automotive Practice Leader. Merrihew, who joins Compete from Automotive Information Center, will leverage his industry expertise to drive the adoption of Compete's business intelligence offerings, targeting automakers and their service partners. Compete's automotive solutions enable the automotive industry, for the first time, to incorporate highly accurate pre-purchase consumer shopping behavior into their incentive, marketing, inventory allocation and demand forecasting initiatives.
    By analyzing the online research and shopping behavior of more than one million active car shoppers annually, Compete's automotive practice provides OEMs with profiles of consumers' automotive preferences and buying behavior garnered by modeling shoppers' explicit make/model interests as they research and option cars across the leading automotive sites. Automakers can leverage Compete's insights to hone their marketing strategies, optimize incentive programs, and make better inventory allocation decisions at both a national and regional level. Since launching its automotive practice earlier this year, Compete has worked with leading automakers including Toyota and Lexus to translate its automotive intelligence into actionable business strategies which capitalize on new market opportunities and stem competitive threats.
    "I am delighted that Lincoln has joined the Compete team. His addition to the automotive practice is well timed to take advantage of the growth opportunities in this market," said Man Jit Singh, CEO of Compete. "Lincoln's extensive industry knowledge and impressive pedigree in the auto industry spanning forecasting, analysis and market research will prove invaluable to our automotive clients and ensure that Compete is an important part of the automotive industry's strategic business efforts going forward."
    Prior to joining Compete, Merrihew served as Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Analysis for Automotive Information Center, Autobytel Inc.'s vehicle data and content division. In this role, Merrihew was instrumental in forming strategic relationships and expanding the company's product lineup. Previously, Merrihew served as Principal and leader of the Americas Forecast Operations at Standard and Poor's, DRI Global Automotive Group, where he was responsible for integrating forecasting efforts for North and South America and leading analysis efforts nationally. Prior to this he held director-level positions at J.D. Power and Associates, where he worked on a number of market research initiatives including owner loyalty, customer satisfaction and production forecasting and analysis. Merrihew received his B.A. in Economics from Dickinson College, and his M.A. from Boston University. Merrihew has participated in various speaking engagements at senior-level automotive conferences, and has been quoted in numerous automotive and business publications.
    "I am excited about the incredibly valuable insights that Compete offers the automotive industry. The unique ingredients that Compete has brought to the table have allowed the creation of one-of-a-kind market solution," said Merrihew. "Consumers' online research and pre-purchase shopping behavior have proven crucial to the auto industry and there is a tremendous opportunity in the market for solutions that interpret this online data and provide actionable intelligence to help the industry more efficiently utilize resources. Others have dabbled in this market and have done so with only limited success. I am thrilled to have the opportunity to unleash Compete's tremendous market potential."

    About Compete

    Compete, Inc. (www.compete.com) is a premier business intelligence firm that provides industry-leading companies with competitive insights and strategies to optimize their key business decisions. Built upon the industry's foremost pool of consumer behavior data, representing over 10 million Internet users, Compete provides an unprecedented understanding of customer and competitor dynamics, plus performance metrics and business recommendations to isolate businesses challenges and opportunities. Based on a patent-pending approach to data management, Compete translates consumers' online behavior into highly actionable information that targets companies' strategic business issues including demand forecasting, pricing and promotions, marketing programs and product optimization. Compete offers its solutions to financial services, automotive, media & entertainment, and retail & consumer products companies.
    Compete licenses detailed clickstream data representing the online behavior of Internet users, and strongly supports individual privacy and does not license personally identifiable information.