Alliance Data Systems Corp.’s Epsilon unit will acquire DoubleClick E-mail solutions for $90 million.
The deal will give Epsilon a stronger presence in the retail, travel, publishing and consumer-packaged-goods markets. It will also give Epsilon 400 more clients, such as J. Crew, Patagonia, Unilever and Proctor & Gamble.
DoubleClick’s 220 employees will be integrated in Epsilon Interactive, Alliance Data said in a press release announcing the move.
Alliance Data Systems has been beefing up its marketing services for more than a year. It acquired Epsilon in 2004. It announced last week it would acquire Toronto-based ICOM, a marketing data provider for the direct-response, consumer-packaged-goods and over-the-counter pharmaceutical industries.
It acquired e-mail marketing service provider Bigfoot Interactive in September and merged it with Epsilon to create Epsilon Interactive.
Moreover, Alliance Data has credited marketing services with helping increase its profitability.
Alliance Data on Feb. 1 reported that profits for the fourth quarter of 2005 increased 96% to $31.3 million driven in part by a better-than-expected performance by Epsilon and its Air Miles Rewards program.
The company during the fourth quarter of 2005 signed agreements to launch co-branded credit card programs for Spiegel Catalog and Newport News, and extended an existing program with Limited Brands.
DoubleClick—which included co-op catalog database marketing concern Abacus Direct—was acquired by San Francisco-based private equity firm Hellman & Friedman for $1.1 billion last year.
The deal with Epsilon leaves Hellman & Friedman with Abacus and DoubleClick’s Advertising Solutions Division, which includes DART online ad-management products, and search and affiliate marketing services provider Performics.
According to a rumor reported by the London Times, Hellman & Friedman and another private equity firm are amassing a $10.7 billion bid for information-services firm Experian.
