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SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
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FORM 8-K
CURRENT REPORT
Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934
Date of Report: August 14, 1998
USCS International, Inc.
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(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
Delaware 0-28268 94-1727009
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(State or other (Commission (IRS Employer
jurisdiction of File Number) Identification No.)
incorporation)
2969 Prospect Park Drive, Rancho Cordova, California 95670-6148
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(Address of principal executive offices) (Zip Code)
Registrant's telephone number, including area code: (916) 636-4500
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Item 5. OTHER EVENTS
On August 14, 1998, the Registrant issued the following press release:
For more information, contact:
USCS International, Inc.
Linda Cutler
Vice President, Investor Relations
(916) 636-5861
Email: lcutler@uscs.com
Morgen-Walke Associates, Inc.
Jim Byers, Carolyn Bass, Doug Sherk
(415) 296-7383
Sandra Badurina, Karen Amlong
(212) 850-5600
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Reference CC-98-69
USCS INTERNATIONAL ANNOUNCES UTILITY BILLING
SOFTWARE ACQUISITION
CABLEDATA SUBSIDIARY ACQUIRES CUSTIMA INTERNATIONAL, PLC,
MARKING ENTRY INTO ENERGY AND UTILITY MARKETS
RANCHO CORDOVA, Calif., August 13, 1998--USCS International Inc. (Nasdaq:
USCS) today announced that its CableData Inc. subsidiary has acquired Custima
International, plc, a leading billing and customer care provider to the energy
and utilities industries worldwide. The acquisition marks a major milestone for
USCS's entry into energy and utilities markets via the CUSTIMA-Registered
Trademark- software, which supports electric, gas, water and waste utilities.
Located in the United Kingdom, Custima has installations in 15 countries
and bills a combined base of more than six million households. Custima recently
entered the U.S. market with contracts to provide service for the Chester Water
Authority in Pennsylvania and the City of Tulsa, Oklahoma. With this
acquisition, USCS intends to aggressively pursue additional outsourcing
opportunities triggered by the deregulation of the US utility marketplace.
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"This acquisition is significant for USCS. It will enable us to
accelerate our market diversification by immediately addressing the North
American utility market while continuing to grow our international
presence," stated Jim Castle, chairman and chief executive officer, USCS
International. "Custima adds a proven, highly functional and flexible
software system that supports multiple services throughout the global energy
and utility industries and adds unmatched experience in those markets to USCS
International."
The purchase price of the all-cash acquisition is approximately $15
million. Custima's revenues for 1997 were approximately $8 million. Subject
to the completion of the appraisal of Custima, USCS expects to take a
one-time charge to earnings for acquisition-related and research and
development costs in the quarter ending September 30, 1998.
The CUSTIMA software is an open system product that runs in all standard
versions of UNIX on at least six hardware platforms, as well as Windows
NT-Registered Trademark-. Functionality of the application includes customer
marketing, meter management, complex billing, credit management and customer
contact processing.
USCS is a leading global provider of customer management software and
statement processing to the communications and other service industries,
which serve more than 75 million end-users world-wide. In the United States,
the Company currently provides its services to clients serving more than 50
percent of all cable television subscribers, 40 percent of all cellular users
and 11 percent of wire-line telephony customers and to a variety of other
service providers. USCS International's clients include cable television,
wireless and wire-line telephony, direct broadcast satellite, electricity,
water, gas, waste management, utility and multiple services in more than 20
countries. More information on USCS can be found at www.uscs.com.
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning
of Section 27A of the Securities Act and Section 21E of the Securities
Exchange Act. Actual results could differ materially from those projected in
the forward-looking statements, which involve a number of risks and
uncertainties and should be considered in conjunction with the cautionary
statements contained in the registration statement filed by USCS on Form S-1
and declared effective by the Securities and Exchange Commission on June 20,
1996, and its report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 1998.
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SIGNATURE
Pursuant to the requirements of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the
registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the
undersigned hereunto duly authorized.
Dated: August 14, 1998
USCS International, Inc.
(Registrant)
By: /s/ Douglas L. Shurtleff
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Douglas L. Shurtleff
Senior Vice President,
Chief Financial Officer
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