Zustek Announces Acquisition, Symbolic Name Change
E-mail service provider Zustek Corporation announced yesterday it has acquired interactive agency Adverb Media, a full-service online marketing agency.
At the same time, the company — headed by Al DiGuido, formerly of Epsilon — announced the new entity will be named Zeta. This is a highly symbolic name change. Zeta comes immediately after epsilon in the Greek alphabet.
DiGuido was president of Epsilon Interactive, the online unit of marketing services firm Epsilon, until he was let go in September 2006 after a tumultuous period.
The acquisition of Adverb Media puts Zeta on the same track Epsilon Interactive was on when he left, according to DiGuido. Zeta aims to offer a complete set of online marketing services so clients don’t have to go to multiple providers, he said. These services include search optimization and campaign management, social media services, Web site design and creative development.
“Adverb was an organization that had all of these different elements and had done the integration,” he said. “Most of the marketers I talk to are saying: ‘Right now I’ve got to deal with four or five different vendors to get something done.'”
DiGuido declined to discuss the financial details of the deal. He also would not comment on Zeta’s revenue.
As for size, Adverb adds about 150 employees to Zustek’s approximately 150, making Zeta a 300-person firm with its headquarters in New York, and offices in Tampa, FL, San Francisco, Dallas, Los Angeles, Boise, ID, Boonton, NJ and India, said DiGuido. He added there will be no layoffs or consolidation of facilities.
“The converse is actually true,” he said.
DiGuido’s much-publicized firing from Epsilon came on the heels of a rough period where Epsilon acquired the company DiGuido headed, Bigfoot Interactive, and then online advertising concern DoubleClick’s e-mail unit. The acquisitions reportedly resulted in culture clash between DoubleClick and Bigfoot executives, and an exodus of DoubleClick staffers.
Amid the cultural issues, Epsilon also sued DoubleClick, claiming it was trying to set up a competing e-mail offering in an unfair attempt to rival the assets it had just sold to Epsilon. That lawsuit was settled, however, when Epsilon agreed to acquire DoubleClick’s co-op database concern Abacus in December 2006 for $435 million.
DiGuido was out of the industry for a year until he was named CEO of e-mail service provider Zustek last month.
