Alacra Launches Street Pulse -- New Site Aggregates Latest Comments from Traditional Analysts and Bloggers for Investors

Alacra, Inc. a leading provider of online business information, today launched Alacra Street Pulse, a free web-based application that captures and organizes comments from traditional equity, credit and industry analysts as well as alternative media. Designed for both financial professionals and individual investors, Alacra Street Pulse answers the question "what do key opinion leaders have to say…" about a given company.

New York, NY (PRWEB) February 18, 2009 -- Alacra, Inc. a leading provider of online business information, today launched Alacra Street Pulse, a free web-based application that captures and organizes comments from traditional equity, credit and industry analysts as well as alternative media. Designed for both financial professionals and individual investors, Alacra Street Pulse answers the question "what do key opinion leaders have to say," about a given company.

Historically, investors looked to sell-side firms for research insights. However, in recent years the sell-side research model has changed and sell-side firms are covering fewer companies, with fewer analysts that publish less frequently. This, in turn, has led to the rise of the independent research analyst and the professional blogger.

According to Alacra CEO Steve Goldstein, "The proliferation of alternative sources has made the process more difficult for anyone looking for company information. The challenge in this decentralized research model is in locating and organizing all of that information so that it's accessible when you need it. Says Goldstein, "There's too much noise and not enough signal."

Alacra Street Pulse integrates comments from sell-side, credit analysts, industry analysts and a carefully vetted list of influential bloggers. The data is organized so that users can easily see comments on a single company or those from a specific firm or analyst. It's the only source that organizes comments from traditional analysts and the alternative media in a single view.

"Investors are looking for contrarian views and new ideas," according to hedge fund manager and internet entrepreneur Howard Lindzon. "There's plenty of information on the terminals, but users need to go beyond those traditional sources to gain real insights."

Alacra Street Pulse uses the freemium business model. The site http://pulse.alacra.com is a completely free version, available without registration on the open web. The free version is supported through advertising and the sale of contextually relevant credit and investment research through the Alacra Store (www.alacrastore.com). A professional version that contains no advertising is available for license, and includes advanced features including watch lists, email alerts, sharing and advanced search capabilities.

Alacra Street Pulse is the first application launched on the Alacra Pulse Platform, also unveiled today. The Pulse Platform finds, filters and packages web-based content that lets you quickly consume relevant, important information about a company. The Pulse Platform reads and analyzes news stories and blog posts from more than 2,000 hand-selected mainstream and alternative media RSS feeds searching for specific types of business information.

About Alacra, Inc.:

Alacra creates sophisticated online technology and services to help clients find, package and present business information. Financial institutions, professional service firms and other corporations have long used the same content sets to support clients, research deals and investigate market opportunities. The Alacra mission is to package this content and deliver it in a format that best meets each organization's precise needs.

Media Contact:

Carol Ann Thomas

Marketing Manager

212-805-3841

carolannDOTthomasATalacraDOTcom

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