Don’t bet on it, but there’s an outside chance Direct Media Inc., the list giant made up of both consumer and B-to-B units, may survive intact.
Managers from both sides of the firm met in Toronto last month and provisionally agreed to explore the idea of a consolidated management buyout from parent Acxiom Corp. One source said there was a “pretty unanimous” agreement, but another indicated there are several major obstacles and that the whole thing has now been put on the back burner.
For example, it has not been decided who would run the new Direct Media, or what the structure will be; the likelihood is that it would be decentralized. And it’s not clear that the consumer and business-to-business sides can overcome their differences.
But all sides concede there would be practical advantages. For example, it would be difficult and expensive to split the IT department into two parts. And the units would benefit from centralized accounting.
Just before the DMA fall conference in Toronto, the B-to-B group was working on a management 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.
There were no signs with Acxiom’s name at DMI’s booth at the conference, and sources said Steve Brighton has returned to Acxiom headquarters in Arkansas after a few years heading DMI’s home office in Greenwich, CT.
The sources described the proposed buyout as a “friendly divorce,” and said that Direct media and Acxiom will continue to work closely together.
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