The challenges of putting together a consolidated management buyout of Direct Media are so vast that the idea may be put on the back burner.
That’s the word from sources inside the company, who said that the consumer and B-to-B sides of the list-management brokerage company are nowhere close to an agreement.
Sources told DIRECT Newsline on Tuesday that the sides had agreed “pretty unanimously” to jointly pursue the idea of a buyout of the company from Acxiom.
Managers from both sides of DMI met on Monday night in Toronto, and provisionally agreed to explore the idea of a consolidated buyout. However, despite this “agreement to agree,” there was confusion among the sides as to what was agreed to, said one source.
All sides concede there would be practical advantages. For example, it would be difficult and expensive to split the information technology department into two parts.
There were no signs with Acxiom’s name at DMI’s booth at the Direct Marketing Association Fall Conference and Exhibition in Toronto, and sources said Steve Brighton has returned to Acxiom headquarters in Arkansas after a few years at DMI headquarters in Greenwich, CT.
As of last Friday, the B-to-B group was working on a buyout from Acxiom, and it appeared that the consumer side would remain as an autonomous unit of the parent company. Acxiom acquired Direct Media in 1996.
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