Alpharetta, Georgia-based ChoicePoint provides risk management services, including criminal history searches, attitude assessments and other employment screening services. Other major screening vendors include USIS, First Advantage and Acxiom.

Reed Elsevier already has a presence in the background screening field through its LexisNexis unit. It offers applicant screening as well as skills assessment services.

“The market growth in risk information and analytics is highly attractive and ChoicePoint brings important assets and market positions that fit well with our existing business and, in combination, can be leveraged to provide enhanced products for customers,” Reed Elsevier CEO Crispin Davis said in a statement.

ChoicePoint was founded in 1997 in a spinoff from Equifax, the U.S.-based credit bureau. In the company’s decade of operation, annual revenue grew from about $400 million to approximately $1 billion.

“Since 1997, ChoicePoint has been a leader in our industry,” ChoicePoint CEO Derek V. Smith said in a statement. “We developed innovative products that helped our customers be successful. We created wealth for our shareholders. We built a workplace culture and a respect for personal privacy that is recognized as among the best in our industry and all U.S.-based businesses.”

ChoicePoint’s privacy record was stained a few years ago when the company announced it had sold information about many consumers to people who turned out to be identity thieves.

ChoicePoint said it sent notices to about 163,000 individuals who may have been affected by fraudulent and improper access to ChoicePoint information services. The security breach led to a settlement with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission in which ChoicePoint agreed to pay $10 million in civil penalties and $5 million to be used to reimburse consumers for expenses incurred because of identity theft caused by the breach.