CM Group And Cheetah Digital Merge

CM Group, parent to several email brands, has merged with cross-channel engagement platform Cheetah Digital in another instance of martech consolidation. Terms were not disclosed.

The new entity will operate under the CM Group name, and CM Group’s owners -- including Insight Partners -- will hold a majority stake. Cheetah Digital’s majority owner, Vector Capital, will be a substantial minority owner. CM Group's headcount will nearly double in size. 

CM Group will expand its main mission from email marketing to overall customer engagement. In addition, the merger will extend the firm’s reach into the large enterprise segment, adding to the nine products it now offers to specific verticals. 

The company will be “well positioned to meet the needs of customers of all sizes and shapes,” says Wellford Dillard, CEO at CM Group.

Cheetah Digital products will continue to be branded as such in line with CM Group’s model of keeping “each CM Group product distinct and focused on specific verticals or market segments,” Dillard notes.

The new CM Group plans significant investments across the portfolio to bring new products to its 70,000+ customers. And it will continue to add “complementary technologies through future business combinations,” while building organic growth, it says.  

CM Group owns the Campaign Monitor, Emma, Vuture, Delivra, Liveclicker, Sailthru, and Selligent brands.  It acquired Selligent, an omnichannel marketing cloud platform based in Brussels, in its fifth purchase in 24 months, last November. 

The firm’s “home for every marketer’ model is a completely unique approach in our industry and in broader martech,” says Peter McCormick, executive chairman at Cheetah Digital.

Cheetah Digital serves such clients as Hilton, Neiman Marcus, Walgreens and Williams-Sonoma. 

Last year, the company debuted Cheetah Personalization, a suite designed to help brands provide  “a value exchange for consumers in the ‘moment’ when you have them on your mobile app, on your site, in your store,” said, Bill Ingram, chief product officer at Cheetah Digital, at the time. 

The CM Group-Cheetah Digital merger follows the news that Sinch is acquiring Pathwire, owner of Mailgun, Mailjet and Email on Acid, for $1.9 billion, that Intuit is buying Mailchimp for $12 billion and that MessageBird acquired SparkPost for $600 million.  

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