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Company type | Private |
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NYSE: HRT | |
Industry | Pre-employment screening |
Founded | 1995[1] |
Headquarters | Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
Key people | Guy Abramo |
Services | Background check |
Revenue | ![]() |
Owners |
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Number of employees | 3,190 (2023) [2] |
Website | hireright |
HireRight Holdings Corporation is a global family of background screening companies based in Nashville, Tennessee. The company became public via an initial public offering in 2021 with a listing on the New York Stock Exchange. [3] [4] In 2024, private equity firms General Atlantic and Stone Point Capital agreed to acquire the company for $1.65 billion. [5] [6] The transaction closed on June 28, 2024. [7]
On June 23, 2010, HireRight announced that it had acquired Powerchex, a UK-based pre-employment screening company specialising in the financial services sector in the City of London. [8] Powerchex was a full member of the UK chapter of the National Association of Professional Background Screeners or NAPBS, [9] and was started by Alexandra Kelly in 2005 who is the former managing director and owner of the company.
In October 2010, Powerchex was rebranded as HireRight. [10]
Both Powerchex and Kroll Background Screening (below) are now fully owned subsidiaries of HireRight.
On August 3, 2010, HireRight then-parent company Altegrity Risk International announced it had completed the acquisition of Kroll Inc. from Marsh & McLennan Companies in an all-cash transaction valued at US$1.13 billion. In October 2010, Kroll Background Worldwide was rebranded as HireRight. [10]
On March 13, 2018, it was reported that Duff & Phelps Corp. would buy Kroll, Inc. (which did not include background screening portion of the former Kroll business that had been rebranded with HireRight brands). [11] On June 4, 2018, the transaction was completed. [12] [13]
On Friday, May 25, 2018, HireRight and General Information Services (GIS) announced their intent and agreement to a merger. [14] The companies announced the closing of the merger on July 12, 2018. [15] The resulting combined group is the largest provider of background screening services in the United States. Following the merger, HireRight rebranded, with both HireRight and GIS using the new branding. [16]
On October 12, 2019, HireRight announced the acquisition of J-Screen in Japan and PeopleCheck in Australia. [17]
HireRight was the subject of a number of class-action and Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA) lawsuits. [18] [19] In 2011 the company paid $28 million to plaintiffs who accused HireRight of failing to provide copies of reports to job applicants and failing to resolve disputes. [18] And on August 8, 2012, the US Department of Justice announced HireRight settled charges of violating the FCRA for $2.6M. [18] [20]
Companies that use background check services must follow FCRA procedures or face class-action liability with millions of dollars in exposure. [21] According to a Wall Street Journal investigation into hiring practices in the trucking industry, class-action lawsuits were brought against trucking companies over how they use HireRight. [18] [22] HireRight customer U.S. Xpress settled in 2013 for $2.75M, and Swift in 2014 for $4.4M over their failure to disclose hiring practices. [23] [24] [25] [26]