Ebix Acquires PlanetSoft for $40 Million and Adds Underwriting, Claims, Compensation, Producer Appointment & ePolicy Delivery Services to Its Life & Annuity Exchanges

ATLANTA, June 5, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Ebix, Inc. (Nasdaq:EBIX), a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance industry, today announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire PlanetSoft, Inc. effective the 1st of June 2012. The acquisition is expected to be immediately accretive to Ebix Earnings per Share (EPS). The closing is expected to be completed in the next week, subject to fulfillment of all regulatory and fiduciary approvals on both sides.

With over 14-years of successful experience, PlanetSoft currently services many of the top 20 Life insurance companies in the United States and India, including industry leaders such as Swiss Re, MassMutual, Liberty Mutual, Manulife Financial, Sun Life Financial, Desjardins and New York Max Life. With approximately 575 employees spread across India and the United States, PlanetSoft is in the business of powering data exchanges that streamline core insurance operations in the areas of client acquisition, underwriting, and distribution management.

Under terms of the agreement, Ebix has acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of PlanetSoft for a purchase price payable as follows: $35,000,000 paid in cash at closing, and $5,000,000 payable in the form of 297,265 shares of the common stock of Ebix issued at the time of closing. The deal will also involve earn-out cash payments to PlanetSoft shareholders, based on specific revenue numbers that are achieved in the next twenty-four (24) months. Ebix funded the purchase using a mix of internal cash reserves and the Bank credit line available to Ebix at Libor plus 1.5%. No financial advisors were involved in the transaction from the Ebix side.

PlanetSoft provides exchange solutions for the Insurance sector in the areas of Agent Licensing and New Business Underwriting. Its key services are as follows -
 

• New Business Processing and Underwriting - PlanetSoft's flagship product, "The Policy Processor" (TPP), is an end-to-end, straight-through processing platform for automating new business processing and underwriting of individual life, annuities, and group insurance products. The Policy Processor™ powers data collaboration connecting organizations, systems, and people in the new business processing service chain. The underwriting and new business processing departments have to work collaboratively with several departments within the insurance company, as well as with outside vendors and agents in the field. With the TPP, the ecosystem is connected, making it possible for seamless, accurate, and expeditious processing of new business cases.
   
• Producer Support System- Streamlines the producer support functions such as the agent appointment process by powering Exchange of data targeted towards collecting licensing information from the agent, automatically updating systems, routing workflow based on user defined business rules, providing seamless connectivity for filing the appointment with the required states and for conducting background checks through General Information Systems (GIS).
   
• The Claims Processor - The Claims Processor automates claims filings, review, and payouts through rules based paperless processing.
   
• Planet Interact Core Framework - Targeted towards the financial services and insurance industries, the Framework allows companies to streamline complex business processes while acting as a rapid application generator for Straight Through Processing. Specific functionalities include Dynamic E-forms, Rules Based Workflow Routing, Interface with internal and external systems and Administrative Interface for Visibility etc.
   
• Plasma - Swiss Re and PlanetSoft have joined forces to offer you a customized, automated, full underwriting decision tool enabling end-to-end straight-through processing based on a Company's underwriting requirements. The product involves a simplified underwriting approach targeted at issuing a policy in minutes at the point of sale, with no medical exams, lab tests, MIB, MVR or Rx database checking.
   
• MobileAxis - Provides business agility technology and mobile collaboration while providing for a dynamic means of customer interactions with insurance companies.

With 90% of its employees based in four offices in India, PlanetSoft has built a strong mix of offshore and onsite staff with core knowledge of insurance, while providing world-class solutions to its insurance company clients.

Robin Raina, Chairman, president and CEO of Ebix, said, "This is a very strategic acquisition for us since the combination of PlanetSoft and Ebix exchange products will give us the unique ability to converge insurance and investment operations from front end to back end while converging lead generation, CRM, quoting, illustration, research, underwriting, compliance, policy issuance, claims, reinsurance, compensation management, agent appointment etc in an end-to-end transaction enabling straight through processing. That simply has never been done earlier across the world by any software vendor in our industry."

"Ebix and PlanetSoft shared the common goal of end-to-end processing for the insurance industry. Both the companies are committed to SaaS based exchange services targeted at automating the entire process of insurance across all entities. Both Companies have made strong investments in building world class development & intellectual property rights facilities in India." PlanetSoft Founder and CEO Sudhir Bajaj said. "With all these commonalities between the two companies, and the fact that our services complemented each other, we felt that PlanetSoft combining with Ebix has the potential of providing the insurance industry with a giant leap forward in the area of straight through processing."

Robin added, "We are excited to inherit a strong management team from PlanetSoft and welcome them to the Ebix family."

About PlanetSoft

Incorporated in 1998, PlanetSoft has grown rapidly to be recognized as a major technology provider addressing mission critical processes in the Life and P&C segments of the insurance industry. Focused in the areas of streamlining distribution centric processes, including a seamless transaction of underwriting insurance via web portals and mobile devices, PlanetSoft is accelerating insurance sales and service through technology. For more information about PlanetSoft and its solutions please visit www.planetsoft.com

About EbixExchange

A division of Ebix, Inc., EbixExchange is the premier On-Demand Software Exchange that offers products and services that automate, expedite, and improve the process for the life insurance, annuity, property & casualty, and health insurance industries. Seen as a leading developer of electronic Straight Through Processing, EbixExchange currently supports a broad range of insurance agencies, brokerage and clearing firms, and operations centers at over 100 of the leading insurance carriers and their affiliates. EbixExchange products include WinFlex (multi-carrier compliant illustrations), VitalSales Suite (research/quotes/forms), AnnuityNet (annuity order-entry), LifeSpeed (advanced application processing), EbixHealth (employee benefits and claims) and various P&C exchanges across the world. For more information, please visit http://www.ebixexchange.com

About Ebix, Inc.                                                    

A leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance industry, Ebix, Inc., (Nasdaq:EBIX) provides end-to-end solutions ranging from infrastructure exchanges, carrier systems, agency systems and BPO services to custom software development for all entities involved in the insurance industry.

With 30+ offices across Brazil, Singapore, Australia, the US, New Zealand, India and Canada, Ebix powers multiple exchanges across the world in the field of life, annuity, health and property & casualty insurance while conducting in excess of $100 billion in insurance premiums on its platforms. Through its various SaaS-based software platforms, Ebix employs hundreds of insurance and technology professionals to provide products, support and consultancy to thousands of customers on six continents. Ebix's focus on quality has enabled it to be awarded Level 5 status of the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model (CMM). With a recent ISO 27001-security certification, the Company also has a ISO 9001:2000 certification for both its development and BPO units in India. For more information, visit the Company's website at www.ebix.com

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