Blogs
Maximizing Deliverability
Spencer Kollas Director of Deliverability Services
August 12, 2008
Return Path Acquires Habeas
Today it was announced that Return Path has purchased Habeas. While terms of the deal were not disclosed in the announcement, it was stated that both SenderScore Certified and the Habeas Safelist will continue to run as two separate whitelists. Over the last couple of months, there have been a number of rumors as to what would happen to Habeas, as it was widely known that they were up for sale. I believe this new deal makes a lot of sense for Return Path, as they will not only take over Habeas’ customer list, but I imagine that they paid a “fair” price for the company.
So what happens to those Habeas customers that were using their delivery tools such as their seedlist, message preview or even delivery support? Those customers will be migrated over to the Return Path tools and services in the next couple of months so that there will only be one platform supported by the company.
What does this mean for the industry? Well, the first thought is that it reduces the number of well-established accreditation companies from three to two, with only Return Path and GoodMail still in the mix. While there are some other smaller options out there, these two seem to be the most widely used and well known by those that are not just in the deliverability space, but email as a whole. With regards to delivery tools, there are still other companies such as Pivotal Veracity as well. Of course, the next question most people will ask, will the reduction in options increase the prices for what is left, that is something we will have to wait and see on. For now, I think this acquisition makes a lot of sense for Return Path, and I have all the faith in them that they will make a smooth transition for the current customers of Habeas.
Let me know what you think—Do you agree or think I have lost my mind on this—please make sure to add your comments.
Posted by: Spencer Kollas at 8:50 AM
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Return Path Acquires Habeas.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://www.strongmail.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/113
I don't think you've lost your mind at all. These are normal questions to ask -- how will we handle integration, and will we raise prices. Thanks for the vote of confidence on integration and transition. I think our collective team (RP and Habeas) will prove you right on it being smooth.
As for pricing, we have already announced (several months ago, before this came about) that we'd be raising prices on our whitelist sometime this year. Our receiver footprint has grown to 1.2 billion mailboxes, up almost 3x from when we got the program in 2005 from IronPort. So we are providing a TON more value for clients at basically the same price they've paid for years. This deal with Habeas doesn't change that plan one way or another. And we do have other competitors besides Goodmail. ISIPP is one on the accreditation side, plus most ISPs and many filters still offer their own whitelists. And there are many other competitors in the tools space, the consulting space, and the reputation space.
Comment by Matt Blumberg – August 12, 2008 9:28 AM
Matt--thanks so much for your comments. I can only image how busy you are today with this deal closing today.
Also you make a good point about the ISIPP and the various ISP whitelists-thanks for mentioning it. Good luck everything.
Comment by Spencer Kollas – August 12, 2008 9:58 AM