• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, December 12, 2003

ValueClick, already the leader in affiliate marketing and rapidly becoming a dominant field in almost every facet of online marketing, Thursday made yet another acquisition to accelerate its growth - this time in the area of opt-in email marketing. After the market close, ValueClick announced a deal to acquire Hi-Speed Media Inc., a privately held email marketing services company for $9.5 million.

While the deal was not expected, ValueClick has long made it clear that it plans to expand through a combination of organic growth and aggressive acquisitions.

Los Angeles-based Hi-Speed Media is an opt-in email marketing provider that claims a subscriber database of more than 40 million consumer profiles.

Immediate reactions from publicly held ValueClick were generally positive.

ValueClick "has a great track record on [accretive] acquisitions and I assume this one will be no different. Synergies created by each company purchased will increase revenues and cut cost. Therefore, earning should improve going forward," wrote investordivest on the company's Yahoo! Finance message board early this morning, more or less citing the company management mantra.