Constant Contact Acquires SinglePlatform For $70 Million

Sites include constantcontact.com , singleplatform.com . Published on June 30th, 2012. Written by Anthony West.

It’s too early to tell with certainty but it looks like the online marketing (particularly email marketing) space is undergoing a little shift and more and more businesses are scaling up and adding layers.

The latest deal—so to speak—which hints at this the acquisition of SinglePlatform by Constant Contact. The latter is concerned mainly with online marketing for businesses and offers among other things, email marketing services. SinglePlatform on the other hand is a syndication and visibility provider, allowing small businesses to manage their presence online.

The deal which is pegged at $70 million includes $65 million in cash plus another $5 million towards employee retention payout. The latter is important because SinglePlatform is a 75 person strong company which presently caters to restaurants and other service type businesses.

It is clear from the qualitative difference in services that both companies provide that the deal is all about layering for Constant Contact. The syndication and listings space is becoming a haven for ‘new money’ and many companies are finding that the best way to get in is through inorganic growth. Companies like Yext already have a huge first mover advantage on lesser companies like SinglePlatform so Constant Contact will have to work hard to muscle in on the territory.

It will be interesting to see how Constant Contact manages pricing; presently SinglePlatform charges a modest $495 a year to help businesses stay visible on platforms like the online Yellow Pages. Raising this price in the slightest could spell disaster.