ExactTarget acquires Keymail Marketing to expand into UK market

Indianapolis-based e-mail service provider ExactTarget is expanding into the UK market through the acquisition of Keymail Marketing. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

The acquisition, announced September 8, comes four months after ExactTarget received $70 million in venture capital funding, which it  said it would use to expand its international presence. Keymail had been a reseller of ExactTarget in the UK.

ExactTarget's strategy is to use the acquisition to create closer relationships with its European clients, said Tim Kopp, the company's CMO.

“The whole move is about better serving our clients and having direct relationships with our clients in Europe,” he said. “We've noticed that increasingly a lot of blue chip clients and multinational companies that we have been working with want to be served directly by one vendor for their worldwide one-to-one marketing needs.”

ExactTarget's international client list includes Reed Exhibitions, Aurora Fashions, Aegon, Value Retail and Gulf Air.

London will serve as the company's headquarters for business outside of North America. Peter McCormick, cofounder of ExactTarget, will manage the division as GM of ExactTarget Global.

Kopp added that the company will retain Keymail staffers and hire more employees. To accommodate this growth, ExactTarget will search for a larger London office than the one Keymail occupied.