24/7 Media Acquires Exactis.com for $490 Million

Ad firm 24/7 Media Tuesday bought email marketer Exactis.com in a stock swap valued at $490 million, further bulking up 24/7 for its competition with DoubleClick and the CMGI advertising keiretsu.

The deal calls for each share of Exactis.com stock to be exchanged for .60 shares of 24/7 Media (TFSM) stock, valuing Exactis.com at $29.70 a share, a premium over its Monday closing price of 18 11/16. The acquisition is expected to close in the second quarter.

24/7 clearly hopes that, by continuing to add to its capabilities, it will be better able to compete with its larger rivals. The move may also be aimed at raising awareness and shareholder value, given that 24/7 Media’s chief executive officer, David Moore, has said he thought the company was undervalued.

The ad company in recent weeks has been snapping up other firms in the marketing space. On Feb. 15, 24/7 agreed to acquire AwardTrack, a promotions marketing firm. In January, it bought IMAKE and Sabela Media, a technology firm and an ad serving company.

The purchase of Exactis.com gives 24/7 the capability to send 10 million email messages a day. Rather than focusing on creating the marketing messages, Exactis.com has built an infrastructure to deliver them and analyze results of campaigns. Its competitors include MessageMedia and FloNetwork and @once.

“The acquisition of Exactis.com enables 24/7 Media to offer an integrated, end-to-end customer relationship management solution that will help our combined company’s clients, numbering in the thousands, to acquire new customers and retain existing customers,” said Moore.

“Exactis.com is the leader in highly scalable and precise email delivery technologies and has advanced data mining capabilities that can enhance our current product offerings.”

Exactis.com clients include Sony Music Entertainment, Charles Schwab, MSNBC, First Union, USATODAY.com, Tribune Media Services, The Economist, American Express, the Industry Standard and Red Herring.com.