Bellevue-based Intelius has quietly purchased US Search, a longtime rival in the people and records search business.

Ed Peterson, senior vice president of sales and marketing at Intelius, said the acquisition closed late last month. It was not publicly announced at that time because Intelius remains in a quiet period awaiting an initial public offering.

"We have been chatting on and off with the US Search crew for quite a while," said Peterson in an interview with TechFlash today. "It is a great company. They have a great brand. And they are sort of the godfather of the public records space." [Posted updated with comments from Intelius' rival WhitePages]

Peterson

US Search will maintain its moniker and offices in the Los Angeles area where about 30 people are based. Peterson declined to comment on the purchase price, though we heard the deal was in the $20 million range. He described US Search as a "very healthy business" which is profitable.

The acquisition brings total employment at Intelius to more than 350, with the company recently expanding its footprint in both Bellevue and Bothell.

"We are just running out of room. The business is growing. It is doing very, very well," he said. "And we are always looking to hire."

Intelius has made other acquisitions in the past 18 months, including the purchase of Spock last April and the purchase of Zaba Search at the end of 2008. But US Search is the biggest in terms of employees.

Peterson said Intelius will continue to consider other buyouts as it looks to consolidate its leadership position in online records search.

"We continue to aggressively grow and acquire sites. We acquire good businesses, though," said Peterson. "If we see a good business, we are interested in partnering with them or even more. That's always been part of our strategy."

Intelius first filed to go public in January 2008, but there's been little activity with the SEC filing in recent months. The last update occurred last October.

Peterson declined to elaborate on the company's IPO plans, citing the SEC mandated quiet period for companies waiting to go public. But he did say that Intelius is in a good financial position and doesn't have to go public if it doesn't want to.

"We don't have to do anything. The business is strong. The business is solid, and we'll go when we are ready to go," he said.

According to documents filed with the SEC, Intelius posted revenue of $74 million for the first six months of 2009. During that period, it lost $2.5 million. That compared to net income of $10.8 million for the first six months in 2008.

As a result of the acquisition, US Search CEO Jeff Pullen left the company earlier this month. The high-tech executive recently took a job as president and COO of Bellevue-based AudienceScience, an online advertising company.

UPDATE: Am astute TechFlash reader pointed out in the comments below that the acquisition of US Search may be a defensive move by Intelius against its longtime cross-lake rival WhitePages. I followed up with WhitePages to get their take on the situation, but they aren't saying much.

"We’re not impacted by this transaction," spokeswoman Elizabeth Powell said in an email. "The public records market consists of numerous strong companies." Asked in a follow-up whether US Search continues to partner with WhitePages, Powell declined to comment.

"We don’t publicly comment on individual advertising deals or disclose how much revenue comes from them," she said.