Weekly News Digest

EDGAR Online, Inc. announced that it has completed a conversion and now offers all U.S. public company financial statements in a new importable format called eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL), an open specification that uses XML-based data tags to aid financial data interchange. One of the first financial services companies to make use of XBRL, EDGAR Online is also offering users for the first time and at no cost a limited number of real-time public company financial statements directly downloaded into Microsoft Excel 2003 worksheets.

EDGAR Online participated in the development of XBRL through its early involvement with XBRL International (http://www.xbrl.org). This consortium of more than 200 companies and organizations, such as the big four accounting firms, Morgan Stanley, Microsoft, and the AICPA, represents the international business reporting supply chain. XBRL is an open specification that uses XML-based data tags to describe financial statements in both public and private companies. These tags are intended to create a royalty-free, standards-based method that claims to revolutionize the ways that financial information can be exchanged.

To learn more about this service or to subscribe, go to http://xbrl.edgar-online.com/x/xbrltool/ and http://www.microsoft.com/office/solutions/xbrl/.

Source: EDGAR Online, Inc.

Dialog, a Thomson business, has added market reports prepared by Aroq, a British online publisher specializing in business research, to its Dialog Profound service. Aroq reports cover the global automotive, beverage/drinks, clothing, and food industries. Research is conducted and reports written by Aroq's network of industry specialists based throughout the world.

Dialog Profound offers the professional information market a continuously updated collection of more than 200,000 market research reports contributed by some 130 research firms covering industries and companies worldwide. Dialog recently released a new version of Dialog Profound when it implemented a new technology platform for its business information, news, and market research services.

Aroq's reports, which may be displayed on-screen and also downloaded in PDF format, include:

• Management Briefings—In-depth research focused on specific aspects of an industry, with analysis and opinion.
• Global Market Reviews—Market research reports that focus on individual sectors within covered industries.
• Company Profiles—Extensive reports offering full reporting and analysis about individual companies.

Source: Dialog

LexisNexis, a member of the Reed Elsevier Group, has acquired Verilaw Technologies, Inc. and its electronic court filing and attorney-to-attorney document exchange services. Verilaw previously also provided court management systems, but that business has been separated from the e-filing business and was not acquired by LexisNexis.

With the addition of the Verilaw customer base, LexisNexis will now have a strong national presence of e-filing with courts and law firms in 25 states, including New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, and the Carolinas. It also generates momentum for courts and law firms in other states to adopt a service provider model of e-filing and e-service projects. The companies say the addition of the Verilaw services will enable LexisNexis to accelerate the growth of e-serve usage, which already covers a base of thousands of law firms and tens of thousands of attorneys across the country.

Verilaw co-founders Amdur and Joe Helfrich and chief technology officer Joe Klimowicz will continue with the company after acquisition. The acquired business will become part of the LexisNexis File & Serve unit and report to Michele Vivona, chief operating officer, LexisNexis Applied Discovery and LexisNexis CourtLink.

Source: LexisNexis