E-mail service provider Accucast is expected to announce today it has been acquired by business-communications outsourcer Premiere Global Services.
Both companies are headquartered in Atlanta. No layoffs are expected.
Accucast is the latest in a series of e-mail service providers acquired by other firms.
Alliance Data Systems Corp.’s Epsilon unit acquired Bigfoot Interactive for $120 million in September and renamed the e-mail service provider Epsilon Interactive.
Earlier last year, Acxiom Corp. acquired e-mail service provider Digital Impact and InfoUSA acquired @Once. InfoUSA aquired Yesmail in 2003. Experian acquired e-mail company CheetahMail in March 2004.
The difference between the Accucast acquisition and the others is that Premiere Global Services is not a database or credit-scoring concern.
“We have always considered ourselves a messaging company. … Premiere Global Services is a messaging company,” said Tricia Robinson, Accucast’s chief marketing officer. As a result, she said, there is less of a chance of the culture clash than has been anecdotally reported with some previous e-mail-service-provider acquisitions.
Premiere Global Services offers a slew of business-communications services, such as audio and Web conferencing, electronic document management and marketing automation services.
Accucast is being integrated into Premiere Global Services. The Accucast name will disappear. Accucast was a private company. Premiere Global Services trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PGI
Robinson said Accucast had a number of suitors, but Premiere Global Services was the most attractive because its offer left Accucast’s employee and client rosters intact.
Robinson said Accucast’s clients shouldn’t notice any change in service. “Their service levels and contacts are all in place,” she said.
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