History
Prior to 2005, Affinion Group was known solely as Trilegiant Corporation (TLG) and Progeny Marketing Innovations,(prior to that was doing business as Benefit Consultants Inc., Cendant, CUC International, and Comp-U-Card), a membership-based discount provider of travel, shopping, health, dental, entertainment, buying clubs, and consumer protection services. TLG/Affinion is the successor to Cendant Membership Services, Inc. and Cendant Incentives.
Comp-U-Card began offering membership products in 1973 through the formation of Comp-U-Card of America, Inc. (CUC). Between 1985 and 1986, CUC acquired the insurance and package enhancement products of Financial Institution Services, Inc. and Madison Financial Corporation. In 1988, CUC acquired National Card Control, Inc., which was formed in 1981 and provided loyalty solutions and package enhancement programs. The international products were started by CUC in the early 1990s. In 1997, CUC merged with HFS Incorporated to form Cendant Corporation. The international products were rebranded as Cendant International Membership Services after the formation of Cendant. In 2001, the U.S. membership products were rebranded as Trilegiant and the loyalty solutions products were rebranded as Trilegiant Loyalty Solutions. The insurance and U.S. package enhancement products were rebranded as Progeny in 2002.
During these periods, the various products within the combined financial statements operated independently and were subject to certain non-compete agreements between them which limited their access to new products and markets. In 2004, Trilegiant Corporation terminated the non-compete agreements described above and streamlined its organizational structure to integrate these historically separately managed products lines. Accordingly, the company's North American membership, insurance, package and loyalty products came under common management beginning in the first quarter of 2004 and the North American management team assumed responsibility for international products in late 2004 and oversight of the travel agency in the first quarter of 2005.
In 2005, Cendant and Trilegiant entered into a purchase agreement to which Affinion (backed by private equity) purchased from Cendant all of the equity interests of what is now known as Affinion Group, LLC (known as Cendant Marketing Services Group, LLC prior to the 2005 transactions) and all of the share capital of Affinion International Holdings Limited ( previously known as Cendant International Holdings Limited).
In the second quarter of 2007, the company acquired the data/identity theft detection service CardCops to support existing identity theft and credit monitoring product offerings and in 2008 established the Affinion Security Center serving both consumers and businesses with products, solutions and consultative services for identity theft and data breach events.
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