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How Much Goodwill is 17,000 Letters Worth?

The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that “ChoicePoint warns consumers about fraud:” [link to http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/1310AP_ChoicePoint.html no longer works]

ChoicePoint Inc., the company that disclosed earlier this year that thieves had accessed its massive database of consumer information, said Tuesday in a regulatory filing it has sent out another 17,000 notices to people telling them they may be victims of fraud.

The story comes from the company’s latest 10-Q filing, which also lists an increase in “goodwill” from $824 million to $908 million. (Thus the title, which is courtesy of Rob [http://samablog.robsama.com/].) Close watchers of the company might be interested in the “10. Goodwill and Intangible Assets” section, which explains that the newfound goodwill is a result of various acquisitions, and also puts some value on “Purchased data files.” Also of interest in any modern Choicepoint SEC filing is the “legal proceedings” section.