• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, January 11, 2010

Continuing a flurry of acquisitions in the email marketing arena, Experian has purchased a dominant stake in a Japanese operation. Experian, which owns email service provider CheetahMail, has picked up a nearly 90% stake in Tokyo-based A-Care Systems. A-Care will meld with CheetahMail, although it is not clear if it will undergo a re-brand.

For Experian, the deal gives it a swift entry point into the growing Japanese market, where A-Care has been operating for a decade. CheetahMail has a footprint already in Singapore and Hong Kong in Asia.

A-Care Systems has 160-plus employees in Tokyo. (Beyond CheetahMail, the sprawling Experian does considerable business in Japan with other company divisions.) Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Experian says it now can deliver emails in some 25 languages and in 50 countries. Furthermore, it said A-Care has expertise in mobile marketing in the Japanese market. Consumer adoption of cutting-edge mobile applications there has been soaring for some time and mobile marketing is increasingly being synched with email messaging.

CheetahMail works with a run of multinational clients such as Barclays and Discovery Communications, which could benefit from its new expansion.

U.S.-based email service providers have been making acquisitions at a rapid rate, both domestically and internationally -- notably ExactTarget's September purchase of Keymail Marketing in the United Kingdom.

On Monday, a Boston-based private equity firm, TA Associates, said it has an agreement to buy a majority stake in Munich-based email firm eCircle for $88 million. The company has extensive European operations.

Other recent but more modest deals include Responsys picking up Seattle-based creative shop Smith-Harmon in the fall. And in December, StrongMail purchased a small Indiana-based consultancy.