InfoUSA to acquire ClickAction for $4.1 million

InfoUSA

will acquire ClickAction, an e-mail marketing products and services provider for up to $4.1 million.

ClickAction’s board of directors has approved the purchase, which is now in front of its stockholders. Once approved, the deal is expected to close in late 2002.

The agreement had been in the works for about nine months, according to Vinod Gupta, infoUSA’s chairman and CEO. ClickAction will be folded into the Omaha, NE-based data firm’s Large Business Group, which also includes Walter Karl and Donnelley Marketing.

Gupta also said that the ClickAction will maintain its presence in Palo Alto, CA, and George Grant, ClickAction’s president and CEO, will stay with the company. He also said that there would be no staff reductions, and that infoUSA would likely hire half a dozen new sales associates in several major metropolitan areas to augment its current sales force.

Shares in ClickAction stock closed at 16 cents, up four cents from Tuesday, while infoUSA’s stock dropped 59 cents, to $2.86.

Separately, Donnelley Marketing announced a partnership with DataFlux Corp., a data quality and data integration firm. The agreement will combine Donnelley’s infoConnect Web One Pass 24/7 hygiene functions with DataFlux’s products, giving DataFlux customers online access to a number of postal address cleansing services.