Return Path, an e-mail change of address service, has acquired Assurance Systems Inc., just over a week after purchasing the consulting arm of GasPedal.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
Assurance Systems, in Superior, CO, markets technology that ensures the deliverability of e-mail campaigns. One product, Mailbox Monitor, checks whether or not marketers’ e-mail has been delivered and if not, what happened to it. Another product, Blacklist Alert, monitors public blacklists to be sure marketers are not listed on them.
Assurance Systems started at the beginning of November and has about 30 clients, said CEOGeorge Bilbrey.
Bilbrey was one of the founders of the company that became Return Path.
GasPedal provides consulting about e-mail best practices. GasPedal’s CEO Andy Sernovitz will become general manager of the consulting unit for Return Path from its New York office. He will also continue to run the remaining GasPedal operations—e-mail newsletters and networking dinners for high-level executives.
Return Path is looking to diversify, not move away from, its change-of-address business, which has 12 million records in its database, said Jennifer St. Onge, vice president of marketing at Return Path, which is also in Superior, CO.
"This broadens the business from one core suite of better lists," St. Onge said. "By adding deliverability and best practices, we’re able to offer companies one place to go for better email marketing at every level."
