A week after list firm Rubin Response Services was purchased by Omaha-based conglomerate infoUSA and folded into its Walter Karl subsidiary, it was business as usual for the newly-purchased firm.
Speaking from Rubin Response’s Schaumburg, IL, office on Thursday, Walter Karl president Joann Kropp says her company is in the process of orientating the approximately 30 Rubin employees about Pearl River, NY-based Walter Karl. Kropp added that Rubin’s team has an average tenure of 20 years.
“We’re getting to know each other and our client bases, and letting them know what additional service and products they can offer,” Kropp said.
There are synergies between the Rubin Response and Walter Karl – they both have clients in the high tech, B-to-B, and consumer categories – which is why Kropp said infoUSA chose to convert Rubin Response into a Midwest presence for Walter Karl.
“Hopefully the employees are receptive to change, now that they know what they have to offer,” Kropp says. We want to get them quickly integrated into the cross selling across the [infoUSA] brands.”
Bill and Arlene Rubin founded Rubin Response in 1974. Bill Rubin died in 2002, and the list brokerage and management firm went on the market shortly after Arlene Rubin died this past June.
Vice president John Murphy will now handle Rubin’s day-to-day operations. Judith Rubin-Zivic, who assumed the title of president of Rubin Response in January, will remain with the company as a consultant through mid-2007.
Rubin Response’s catalog clients include western apparel merchant Sheplers, food merchant Hickory Farms, and pet supplies retailer Doctors Foster & Smith.
Rubin Response is the third list firm purchased by infoUSA in the past 12 months. Peterborough, NH-based Millard Group was sold to infoUSA in November 2005 for $12 million. In May, infoUSA paid $6.6 million for Hackensack, NJ-based Mokrynskidirect. Terms of the Rubin Response deal have not been disclosed.