Dan Wagner

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Dan Wagner

Dan Wagner was one of the first British-based Internet entrepreneurs, having founded M.A.I.D (Marketing Analysis & Information Database) in 1984, a company which provided online information services. It made over 200,000 publications available from 192 countries.

He was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, Northwood and University College School, London. After briefly joining Richer Sounds as a salesman he went to work for WCRS advertising in 1981. In 1984, Wagner founded MAID (Market Analysis and Information Database) which was one of the first online information repositories and Wagner as CEO was responsible for its development and growth, building it from zero to 3.5% of the global on-line information market.

In [[1994] MAID floated on the London Stock Exchange and in 1995 floated on Nasdaq. In 1997, Wagner engineered the reverse acquisition of Knight Ridder Information Services which owned many international professional databases including Dialog Information Services in the United States and DataStar in Europe. He managed the integration of the MAID business into Dialog, migrated the existing Dialog databases and professional information solutions to the Internet.

He then gained a deal to license Dialog technology (InfoSort) to Fujitsu of Japan. Other strategic alliances were forged.

In 2000 he achieved the successful disposal of the Information Services Division to The Thomson Corporation of Canada, and created Bright Station plc – an Internet and eCommerce focused technology holding company. In May 2000, he acquired the assets of failed fashion 'retailer' Boo.com and absorbed them into Bright Station. In April 2001, Wagner took Bright Station private from the LSE and NASDAQ and now trades as a private company with two direct investment activities; Venda Inc and Locayta, both of which provide software as services (SaaS) - rented to customers but managed and operated centrally.

As of September 2007 he is reported to be planning to open a Web 2.0 style website^[1]^[2]

He was chosen by the World Economic Forum as a Global Leader of Tomorrow in 1997

Ernst and Young ‘Turnaround’ Entrepreneur of the Year 1998 for Dialog

Dan is an inveterate Arsenal fan.