InfoUSA bought another list firm on Nov. 10: Schaumburg, IL-based Rubin Response Services. But unlike its previous acquisitions, in which the individual companies remained intact, infoUSA plans to fold Rubin Response into its Walter Karl division, giving Walter Karl its own Midwest sales office.
InfoUSA chief financial officer Stormy Dean says that Rubin Response’s approximately 30 employees will remain with the company, including vice president John Murphy, who will handle the day-to-day operations there. Judith Rubin-Zivic, who assumed the title of president of Rubin Response in January, will remain with as a consultant through mid-2007.
“Our stated goal is to continue to consolidate a fragmented industry,” Dean says. “This represents a smaller asset purchase for us, but it will be rolled up into Walter Karl.”
Bill and Arlene Rubin founded Rubin Response in 1974. Bill Rubin died in 2002; the firm went on the market shortly after Arlene Rubin died this past June. Rubin Response’s catalog clients include western apparel merchant Sheplers, food merchant Hickory Farms, and pet supplies mailer Doctors Foster and 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.
Related stories:
Is infoUSA Taking Over the World?
InfoUSA Shareholders Retain Board of Directors