Transunion

Type	Corporation
Industry	Business Services
Founded	1968
Headquarters	Chicago, Illinois
Website	www.transunion.com

TransUnion is the third-largest credit bureau in the United States, which offers credit-related information to potential creditors. Like major competitors Equifax and Experian, TransUnion markets credit reports directly to consumers.

History

TransUnion was created in 1968 by Union Tank Car Company as their holding company. Its credit business began with the purchase of Credit Bureau of Cook County (CBCC) in 1969. TransUnion was built from acquisitions of major city credit bureaus, with service agreements with local owners of bureaus which were not for sale.

In 1981, TransUnion was acquired as a subsidiary of Marmon Group, a holding company formed by Jay Pritzker and Robert Pritzker. It was spun off as a separate company under Pritzker control in 2005. The wealthy Pritzker family, most famous for owning the Hyatt hotel chain, began divesting the family's assets in late 2001 following the death of Jay Pritzker. Notable major divestitures include Hyatt Hotels Corp. public in 2009 and selling majority stake in TransUnion in 2010.

In April 2010, the Pritzker family, with Penny Pritzker as TransUnion Chair, sold controlling interest of TransUnion to a new majority owner, the Chicago-based private-equity firm Madison Dearborn Partners. Madison Dearborn Partners acquired 51 percent stake in TransUnion, and the Pritzker family maintained 49 percent ownership.

Today, TransUnion operates 250 offices in the U.S. and in 25 other countries. It is based in Chicago, Illinois.

On February 17, 2012, Madison Dearborn Partners and the Pritzker family sold the company to Advent International and Goldman Sachs Capital Partners. 

Controversy

In 2003, Judy Thomas of Klamath Falls, Oregon, was awarded $5.3 million in a successful lawsuit against TransUnion. The award was made on the grounds that it took her six years to get TransUnion to remove incorrect information in her credit report.

In 2006 -- after spending two years trying to correct erroneous credit information that resulted from being a victim of identity theft -- a fraud victim named Sloan filed suit against all three of the USA's largest credit agencies. TransUnion and Experian settled out of court for an undisclosed amount. In Sloan v. Equifax, a jury awarded Sloan $351,000. "She wrote letters. She called them. They saw the problem. They just didn't fix it," said attorney A. Hugo Blankingship III of Blankingship & Associates in Alexandria, Virginia.