• by Tameka Kee , August 12, 2008

Return Path has acquired rival e-mail marketing and list management firm Habeas for an undisclosed amount. Habeas, which had been VC-backed since its inception in 2002, tapped William Blair in late April to help prep for a sale. 

The two companies offer complementary products and services, including tools that confirm message delivery as well as whitelists, which ensure that ISPs and anti-spam programs do not block valid marketers' e-mail messages and newsletters. The difference is that New York-based Return Path caters to enterprise clients, including Facebook and MySpace, while Mountain View, Calif.-based Habeas targets mid-level companies like WebEx, Socializr, and BizRate.com. According to Matt Blumberg, chairman and CEO of Return Path, the similarities made Habeas a prime acquisition target.

"We were skeptical at first, but any time one of your smaller competitors announces that it's for sale, it's worth seeing what's there," Blumberg said. "And we discovered that they'd built a competitive, but complementary business because they'd largely gone after a segment of the market that we weren't targeting. There's very little overlap within our client bases."

While both companies offer email marketing and delivery management programs, Habeas' clients will be ported to Return Path's platform in the coming months--and both sets of clients will benefit, as certain features of Habeas' program enhance Return Path's offering. "There were some software components that were on our roadmap, but we hadn't gotten to them yet," Blumberg said. "We'll be adding those in prior to migrating Habeas' clients to our platform."

Blumberg said that the company will maintain both whitelists under their respective brands--Habeas SafeList and Return Path's Sender Score Certified--and Habeas will continue to operate largely out of its Silicon Valley headquarters. Habeas' client roster included over 400 companies in more than 190 countries, bolstering Return Path's plans to scale internationally. Return Path currently serves over 1,000 clients--including global companies--from offices in London, Paris and Berlin, with non-Western European locations slated to open within the next 12 months.

Blumberg said that in addition to international growth, the company was banking on continued interest and marketer investment in e-mail, particularly from the social media space. "One of the most interesting verticals that we serve has been social networking, because almost every major one uses us," he said. "Whether they're sending messages to members, getting members to recruit others, or letting people know who wrote on their wall or got a vampire bite, e-mail is the undercurrent."