Ad network Flycast Communications Corp. has acquired InterStep, a provider of targeted e-mail
management and delivery services, in a deal valued at about $11.3 million.
The transaction will be accounted for as a pooling of interests. Flycast
issued 480,337 shares of common stock to InterStep shareholders. Flycast
shares closed Monday at $23.625.
“This acquisition adds a proven technology platform and sophisticated e-mail
marketing expertise to Flycast’s newly created eDispatch e-mail marketing
division,” said George Garrick, chairman, chief executive officer and
president of Flycast. “InterStep provides a scaleable, feature-rich e-mail
management infrastructure that enables Flycast to deliver sophisticated
e-mail marketing solutions.”
InterStep said it currently delivers more than four million targeted opt-in
e-mails per day. Its clients include AnchorDesk and its parent company
ZDNet, Washington Post and Newsweek Interactive, and Softbank Comdex.
As part of its eDispatch product suite, Flycast (FCST) will offer Web-based e-mail
management services to publishers participating in its e-mail advertising
network. Flycast said it also will provide e-mail marketing and management
solutions to local merchants who advertise on the Flycast Network through
value-added reseller relationships with BellSouth, US West and SBC Corp.
InterStep and its management team, including company founders Bill Jacobson
and Craig Mattson, will become part of Flycast’s eDispatch e-mail marketing
division.
Flycast’s flagship offering is the Flycast Network, which claims to reach
more than 25 million people a month, or 41 percent of the Web audience in
the United States.
