IAR Bits and Bytes

Hormel Moves to Can Spam

Even SPAM’s creators are sick of its e-mail namesake.

Hormel Foods, the makers of SPAM luncheon meat, announced on Tuesday a deal with Postini for services designed to cut down on the flood of unsolicited e-mail.

The deal calls for Hormel to deploy Postini’s Perimeter Manager to block junk e-mail and viruses before they enter its corporate network, to improve worker productivity and cut down on the bandwidth costs of handling spam.


Because of its product’s name has been associated with junk e-mail, the company has been involved with the spam issue much more closely than any other purveyor of luncheon meat, even posting a policy on its Web site which explains its position — firmly in opposition — on unsolicited commercial e-mail.

With more than half of all e-mail now pegged as spam, corporations have become aware of its threat. According to Ferris Research, spam cost U.S. businesses $9 billion last year.



24/7 Real Media Nabs $3.8M Investment

A month after NASDAQ warned it might have to kick it off the exchange, 24/7 Real Media got a vote of confidence Monday with a $3.8 investment.

The investment, in the form of a non-voting convertible stock, gives the interactive marketing technology provider $5.8 million in cash, along with a debt-free balance sheet.

“Our financial position is much stronger than it has been in many years,” said David Moore, 24/7 Real Media’s chief executive. “24/7 Real Media is poised to capitalize on its position as the only gateway to the total spectrum of interactive marketing and technology solutions.”

Last month, 24/7 Real Media improved its financial position through a deal to retire $7.5 million in debt. It also raised $3.4 million by selling preferred stock to a group of investors.

The company has secured a variety of client wins recently, including a deal announced on Tuesday to be the Web ad sales rep for nine ABC-owned TV stations in its Web publisher group.




WebSideStory Adds Conversion Analytics to HitBox

Analytics company WebSideStory announced on Monday new conversion analytics features available with its HitBox e-commerce analytics offering.

HitBox users can now do funnel analysis, which charts how a visitor becomes a customer. In addition, the HitBox hosted product will track form abandonment, charting when visitors give up on filling out forms like membership registration.

The new features are designed to complement HitBox’s current conversion analytics, such as marketing campaign conversion and ROI; product abandonment; cart and checkout conversion; and site conversion.

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