Outlook Group Sells Some Paragon Direct Assets to A.B. Data
Outlook Group Corp., a printing, packaging and direct marketing firm, sold selected assets of its Paragon Direct division to A.B. Data Ltd., a DM services firm based in Milwaukee, it was announced late Wednesday.Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Paragon Direct, which also is based in Milwaukee, has 13 employees and provides database management and mailing services for its clients as well as clients of Outlook Group.
Outlook Group, Neenah, WI, acquired Paragon Direct in June 2003 for an undisclosed sum.
Joseph J. Baksha, president and chief operating officer of Outlook, said the deal would let Paragon Direct grow while still providing direct mail capabilities for Outlook's clients.
"There is a certain amount of overhead required to maintain a data processing operation, and although Outlook Group uses those services, it's not a core competency," Baksha said. "We are much better off working with a larger company doing our work for us."
Bruce Arbit, co-managing director of A.B. Data, said the agreement "expands our direct mail data processing division with a solid base of new clients and enables us to further leverage our extensive portfolio of direct marketing services."
Paragon Direct is involved in business-to-business direct mail while A.B. Data is on the consumer side, "so this gets them into [the] business-to-business [market]," Baksha said.
A.B. Data offers direct marketing services to industries that include direct merchants, printers, healthcare, insurance, fundraising, government, political campaigns, credit card marketers and companies offering other financial services. Its roughly 100 employees serve clients through its offices in Milwaukee and Washington, D.C.
