![\"IBM](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/IBM-Watson-Marketing-Campaign-Automation.png\")
IBM got into the email services provider action with its acquisition of ESP Silverpop in 2014. It combined that acquisition with others it had made and created the IBM Marketing Cloud to go head-to-head with marketing clouds launched by Salesforce, Oracle and Adobe at around the same time.<\/p>\n
Competing in the marketing cloud space takes a lot of time, focus and money, and IBM never seemed to have its heart in the game. It doesn\u2019t take much to fall behind, and while the other cloud players continued with strategic acquisitions and investment, IBM sat tight.<\/p>\n
The first sign of a change in IBM\u2019s strategy came last December when it unloaded several of its martech assets. WebSphere and Unica were sold to HCL Technologies for $1.8 billion.<\/p>\n
In early April of this year, IBM sold its remaining marketing platform and commerce software assets to private equity firm Centerbridge for an undisclosed amount. Centerbridge has indicated that it plans to create a new company from those assets, which includes the email marketing platform formerly known as Silverpop.<\/p>\n
<\/span>What\u2019s in it for email Clients?<\/span><\/h2>\nClients on Silverpop when it was purchased by IBM picked up little advantage over the years. The big winner was IBM\u2019s own email marketing team which up until that point had been forced to email from an internal email platform that was clunky to use. They started sending on Silverpop as fast as they could.<\/p>\n
IBM\u2019s growing indifference to the marketing cloud strategy led to a lack of platform investment and product strategy. It created a good marketing campaign around \u201cWatson\u201d with a focus on AI, not so much on Watson Campaign (Silverpop)<\/a>. But marketing is marketing, and investment is something entirely different. With the sale to Centerbridge, the outlook for its email marketing clients look to remain about the same.<\/p>\nCustomers shouldn\u2019t expect a lot of investment in the platform<\/strong>. If anything there will be a decrease in adjacent email-related professional services. PE firms are looking to quickly maximize the value of these types of acquisitions and increasing the multiples. So expect a focus on improving the technology margins, and cut people because of the lower margins associated with services.<\/p>\n<\/span>2. Epsilon acquisition by Publicis<\/span><\/h2>\n![\"publcicis](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/publcicis-epsilon-2.png\")
It was probably inevitable that Epsilon would get put into play, following Denstu\u2019s acquisition of Merkle and IPG\u2019s takeover of Acxiom\u2019s core database business. Barely two weeks after the IBM announcement, Publicis announced<\/a> its $4.4 billion acquisition of Epsilon from Alliance Data Systems.<\/p>\nEpsilon is one of the largest players in the marketing services space providing clients with a range of marketing services spanning database marketing, direct mail, email marketing, web development, loyalty programs, analytics, data services, strategic consulting and agency services.<\/p>\n
Analysts generally viewed the acquisition as being driven by the increase in the data and analytics services Publicis can provide its clients and the volume of first-party data Epsilon holds on U.S consumers.<\/p>\n
<\/span>What\u2019s in it for email Clients?<\/span><\/h3>\nEpsilon<\/a> deserves a lot of credit for its ongoing investment in the Agility Harmony email platform. It\u2019s a powerful tool for enterprise brands. But there are two reasons for its current email clients to be concerned.<\/p>\nFirst, Publicis has a poor track record in prior integrations of large acquisitions<\/strong> (see: Sapient). If history repeats itself here, there are going to be several years of integration bumps that will be an ongoing distraction for the Epsilon team.<\/p>\n\u2014\u201cWait, you mean there\u2019s an email business here as well?!\u201d.<\/i>
\nThe second reason Client might want to be wary of is that the entire email business is likely to be an afterthought<\/strong> in the acquisition and future plans of Publicis. When eBay purchased GSI Commerce in 2011 it also acquired the ESP eDialog which GSI bought in 2008.<\/p>\nThe eBay acquisition was driven by its interest in the online commerce services GSI had developed. It didn\u2019t really know what to do with the email business and ended up, after several years of declining business, selling it to Zeta Global in late 2015. I\u2019m not suggesting that Publicis will sell the Epsilon email business down the road, but it likely won\u2019t be a focus of attention either.<\/p>\n
<\/span>3. Yes Marketing announces a strategic partnership with Adobe<\/span><\/h2>\n![\"Adobe](\"https:\/\/www.emailvendorselection.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/ah-yes.png\")
The email world had about a month to catch its breath before the next shoe dropped. On May 16th, Yes Marketing\u2014the email marketing arm of Infogroup\u2014announced a new partnership<\/a> with Adobe that would pair Yes Marketing\u2019s widely admired agency services team with the Adobe email platform.<\/p>\nIn essence, this means that Yes is going to retire its own proprietary email platform in favor of Adobe\u2019s Campaign. In all new Yes Marketing opportunities it would be pitching its team and Adobe\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n
This approach has been tried before. Around 2012 Acxiom quietly decided that it would retire its Impact platform (or at least stop investing in it) and partner with then ExactTarget (pre-Salesforce acquisition) on future new business opportunities. It also encouraged many of its largest clients to move to the ET platform. Going forward Acxiom would focus on the services side of the business, with a strong team it had built over the years.<\/p>\n
<\/span>What\u2019s in it for email Clients?<\/span><\/h3>\nI\u2019ll admit to being very surprised by this announcement because we think very highly of the Yes platform. It remains very competitive, unlike the Acxiom Impact platform in 2012 which in truth had fallen behind the competition and required a lot of new investment. Several years of failed attempts to sell the entire Yes Marketing unit of Infogroup likely contributed greatly to this decision.<\/p>\n
Customers shouldn\u2019t expect a lot of investment in the platform<\/strong>. If anything there will be a decrease in adjacent email-related professional services. PE firms are looking to quickly maximize the value of these types of acquisitions and increasing the multiples. So expect a focus on improving the technology margins, and cut people because of the lower margins associated with services.<\/p>\n Epsilon is one of the largest players in the marketing services space providing clients with a range of marketing services spanning database marketing, direct mail, email marketing, web development, loyalty programs, analytics, data services, strategic consulting and agency services.<\/p>\n Analysts generally viewed the acquisition as being driven by the increase in the data and analytics services Publicis can provide its clients and the volume of first-party data Epsilon holds on U.S consumers.<\/p>\n Epsilon<\/a> deserves a lot of credit for its ongoing investment in the Agility Harmony email platform. It\u2019s a powerful tool for enterprise brands. But there are two reasons for its current email clients to be concerned.<\/p>\n First, Publicis has a poor track record in prior integrations of large acquisitions<\/strong> (see: Sapient). If history repeats itself here, there are going to be several years of integration bumps that will be an ongoing distraction for the Epsilon team.<\/p>\n \u2014\u201cWait, you mean there\u2019s an email business here as well?!\u201d.<\/i> The eBay acquisition was driven by its interest in the online commerce services GSI had developed. It didn\u2019t really know what to do with the email business and ended up, after several years of declining business, selling it to Zeta Global in late 2015. I\u2019m not suggesting that Publicis will sell the Epsilon email business down the road, but it likely won\u2019t be a focus of attention either.<\/p>\n In essence, this means that Yes is going to retire its own proprietary email platform in favor of Adobe\u2019s Campaign. In all new Yes Marketing opportunities it would be pitching its team and Adobe\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n This approach has been tried before. Around 2012 Acxiom quietly decided that it would retire its Impact platform (or at least stop investing in it) and partner with then ExactTarget (pre-Salesforce acquisition) on future new business opportunities. It also encouraged many of its largest clients to move to the ET platform. Going forward Acxiom would focus on the services side of the business, with a strong team it had built over the years.<\/p>\n I\u2019ll admit to being very surprised by this announcement because we think very highly of the Yes platform. It remains very competitive, unlike the Acxiom Impact platform in 2012 which in truth had fallen behind the competition and required a lot of new investment. Several years of failed attempts to sell the entire Yes Marketing unit of Infogroup likely contributed greatly to this decision.<\/p>\n<\/span>2. Epsilon acquisition by Publicis<\/span><\/h2>\n
It was probably inevitable that Epsilon would get put into play, following Denstu\u2019s acquisition of Merkle and IPG\u2019s takeover of Acxiom\u2019s core database business. Barely two weeks after the IBM announcement, Publicis announced<\/a> its $4.4 billion acquisition of Epsilon from Alliance Data Systems.<\/p>\n<\/span>What\u2019s in it for email Clients?<\/span><\/h3>\n
\nThe second reason Client might want to be wary of is that the entire email business is likely to be an afterthought<\/strong> in the acquisition and future plans of Publicis. When eBay purchased GSI Commerce in 2011 it also acquired the ESP eDialog which GSI bought in 2008.<\/p>\n<\/span>3. Yes Marketing announces a strategic partnership with Adobe<\/span><\/h2>\n
The email world had about a month to catch its breath before the next shoe dropped. On May 16th, Yes Marketing\u2014the email marketing arm of Infogroup\u2014announced a new partnership<\/a> with Adobe that would pair Yes Marketing\u2019s widely admired agency services team with the Adobe email platform.<\/p>\n<\/span>What\u2019s in it for email Clients?<\/span><\/h3>\n