Vocus Buys Email Marketing Company iContact For $169 Million

Leena Rao

Leena Rao is currently a Senior Editor for TechCrunch. She recently finished graduate school at the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, where she studied business journalism and videography. From 2004 to 2007, she helped lead Congresswoman Carloyn Maloney’s community outreach and relations efforts in New York City. She graduated from Columbia University in 2003, where she was... → Learn More

Tuesday, February 28th, 2012
icontact-picture

Big M&A news in the email marketing world. Vocus, the publicly-listed provider of cloud-based marketing and PR software, has acquired iContact, a company that provides email marketing services for small and medium sized businesses. The total acquisition price is $169 million.

iContact’s email marketing software automates the process of creating, sending and tracking email communications for businesses. iContact, which has raised over $50 million to date, also allows users to track email campaign effectiveness, accessing data around opens, clicks and more.

iContact is also integrated with Facebook and Twitter, and allows users to launch campaigns and offers to reach new customers, create word-of-mouth buzz and generate sales. The platform also serves as a monitoring application to track opens, clicks, likes, follows, and more. The platform is currently being used 70,000 organizations.

For Vocus, email will become the latest addition to the company’s marketing suite. Vocus’ suite already includes search marketing, social marketing (via the acquisition of Facebook apps maker North Social) and publicity applications, centered around a recommendation engine.


Company: Vocus
Website: vocus.com
Launch Date: 1992

Vocus is a leading provider of cloud-based marketing software that helps organizations of all sizes reach and influence buyers across social networks, online and through the media. Vocus provides a suite of software for social media, content marketing and media relations, creating a comprehensive solution for customers looking to generate awareness, build their reputation and increase sales in today’s customer-led buying cycle.

→ Learn more
Company: iContact
Website: icontact.com
Launch Date: July 2, 2003
Funding: $53.4M

iContact is the largest private provider of email marketing and social media marketing software and services to small and mid-sized companies globally. It is based in Morrisville, NC. iContact makes it easy to create, send, and track email newsletters, surveys, autoresponders. iContact’s products include iContact, iContact Enterprise, iContact Agency, iContact for Salesforce, iContact Free Edition and Ettend.com. As a B Corporation, iContact utilizes the 4-1s Corporate Social Responsibility Model, donating 1% of employee time to community volunteering, 1% of...

→ Learn more