Digital River Acquires Direct Response Technologies; Expands Affiliate and E-Marketing Capabilities
MINNEAPOLIS -- Digital River, Inc. (NASDAQ
RIV), a global leader in e-commerce outsourcing, today announced that it has acquired Direct Response Technologies, Inc., a leading provider of affiliate technology and e-marketing solutions. The acquisition will offer the affiliates and clients of both companies a significantly expanded online sales network and more robust affiliate tracking, search-engine bid management and keyword tracking, and ad-serving solutions.The Direct Response products that were acquired as part of this agreement include DirectTrack affiliate management platform, KeywordMax paid search bid management tool, DNEList e-mail campaign and list suppression applications, and DirectLeads online marketing network. The acquisition excludes Direct Response's MyCoupons and GiftCards.com services.
"The acquisition of Direct Response supports two of our strategic growth initiatives - to expand both Digital River's oneNetwork sales channel and strategic marketing services," said Joel Ronning, Digital River's CEO. "By combining the companies, we intend to deliver a more comprehensive affiliate management system, maximize cross-selling opportunities between our affiliate networks and further capitalize on the strong growth opportunity that exists for our strategic marketing services."
Since 1997, DirectTrack has tracked tens of billions of impressions and hundreds of millions of clicks and actions for its affiliate clients. Today, the DirectTrack platform powers more than 150 affiliate networks and 500 merchants, carrying nearly 40,000 offers to more than 200,000 affiliates around the world. DirectTrack's platform supports the sale of physical and digital goods across a wide variety of affiliate models, including sales, clicks, leads and impressions.
"In 1994, Direct Response was one of the first key players in the affiliate marketplace, and since then has earned a reputation as a market leader," said Jason Wolfe, Direct Response's president and CEO. "By joining forces with a solid, growing public company like Digital River - an industry leader committed to the affiliate market - we believe we can offer significant added value to our affiliates, clients and shareholders. This transaction represents a powerful combination of online sales networks and technologies."
Subject to the terms and conditions of the purchase agreement, Digital River acquired the stock of Direct Response in exchange for approximately $15 million in cash. The agreement also provides Direct Response shareholders with an earn-out opportunity based on Digital River and Direct Response achieving certain revenue and earnings targets during the first three years subsequent to the acquisition.
