24/7 Acquires E-Mail Marketing Firm Sift Inc.

New York City-based 24/7 Media Inc. is acquiring Sunnyvale, CA-based Sift Inc., a provider of email-based direct marketing services, in a $22 million stock-for-stock deal.

Sift provides a suite of services for Internet-enabled, database-driven email marketing, including an email distribution service bureau, list management services and a service that appends email addresses to existing customer database lists.

Sift manages and rents opt-in email databases containing more than three million email addresses segmented by demographic, lifestyle, and avocational and vocational interest criteria.

The combined capabilities of the two companies will enable 24/7 Media and Sift to offer enhanced services to 24/7 Media’s advertising and Web publisher clients as well as to Sift’s email service clients. Through new services to be introduced in the next few weeks, 24/7 Media will add customer relationship management programs (acquisition and retention) as a complement to its list of beyond-the-banner online marketing offerings: sponsorships, merchant programs and syndicated content. Advertising clients will be able to email product and service information to prospects and existing clients either by renting 24/7 Media’s opt-in email lists, or by providing their own customer databases.

“The synergies of this deal are multi-faceted, and Sift was the only company we found that demonstrated success in managing a full-service approach to e- mail direct marketing services,” said David J. Moore, CEO at 24/7 Media. “This acquisition is another execution of our strategy to increase the value of online advertising by offering advertisers comprehensive interactive marketing packages.”

Sift will become a subsidiary of 24/7 Media Inc. and its management team will become part of 24/7 Media’s sales and marketing efforts, led by Jay Friesel, executive vice president, sales and marketing. The Sift management team includes co-founders Jack Zoken, CEO, and Jeff Wilkins, president.