Let the Consolidation Begin
Canadian e-mail marketing software-on-demand firm Got Corp., doing business as Campaigner, announced today that it has been acquired by another software-as-a-service company, Protus, for an undisclosed sum.
The acquisition is part of Protus’s strategy to deliver a full set of software-on-demand services to small- to medium sized businesses.
Ordinarily, this news wouldn’t rank much higher than an Endnote, but with the economy slowing and marketer’s tightening their belts, by all accounts the already cutthroat business of e-mail marketing services is getting even more brutal.
As a result, money is getting harder to come by and some service providers who aren’t making any yet are going to have to look for buyers.
For the record, I have no idea of Campaigner’s financial situation, but its acquisition may be part of a larger trend.
“We’re seeing the smaller ESPs start to struggle,” said Deirdre Baird, president of deliverability firm Pivotal Veracity. “Privately funded firms may be finding it difficult to find more money, and those that aren’t cash-flow positive are going to have a tough time.”
Baird—whose business puts her in regular contact with e-mail service providers—said many are telling her that a significant portion of their clients are spending contract minimums at best.
So though the U.S. is not in a recession—defined as two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth—marketers are apparently sure acting like we’re in one.
Add the fact that the market for e-mail service providers aimed at small- to medium-sized businesses is crowded, and we’ve got an industry ripe for consolidation.
Who will do the buying? Well, Yesmail’s parent InfoGroup, formerly InfoUSA, always seems to be in the acquisition hunt. Also, e-mail service provider Silverpop reported in April it has raised $70 million for acquisition purposes. The next 12 months ought to be interesting.
In any case, being bought has its advantages.
For its part, Protus plans to invest “substantially” in Campaigner, according to Steve Adams, vice president of marketing for Ottawa-based Protus.
“Campaigner is a substantial part of our revenue stream,” he said. “We will be aggressively investing into it. This is a growth area for us.”
Luc Vezina, head of marketing for Campaigner, said the acquisition will help his firm avoid some bumps that were likely headed its way.
“Protus has already gone through some of the growing pains that we were going to have to go through,” he said.
Protus’s other products include the MyFax Internet-based fax service and the my1voice PBX phone service.
