Hoover's Inc.

Hoover's Inc., now known as D&B Hoovers, is a business information company founded in 1990 and headquartered in Austin, Texas. In 2003, Dun & Bradstreet acquired Hoover's, Inc. for approximately $119 million, and it now operates as a subsidiary. Before its acquisition, the company went public in 1999. As of early 2026, the broader Hoover's company had approximately 231 employees.

The company provides proprietary business information, including company profiles, industry research, and market intelligence, through an online platform and integrated workflow solutions. Its core product is a large database of information on public and private companies and their executives, which is used by sales, marketing, and business development professionals for lead generation and research. Following its acquisition by Dun & Bradstreet and the subsequent integration of another acquisition, Avention, the primary platform was rebranded as D&B Hoovers.

Based on the provided litigation data, Hoover's, Inc. has the posture of an operating company defending against patent assertions. The company has been a defendant in one tracked case and has not been a plaintiff. This suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, a venue historically favored by patent plaintiffs.

The single tracked case is Sampo IP, LLC v. Ambit Energy Holdings, LLC et al., filed in 2013, where Hoover's was one of several defendants. The plaintiff, Sampo IP, LLC, is a subsidiary of Marathon Patent Group, a company that acquires and licenses patent portfolios, indicating that the suit was brought by a non-practicing entity (NPE). The patents asserted in related Sampo IP cases were for a "Centrifugal Communication and Collaboration Method".