Response Media list division merges with SMS

Specialist Marketing Services Inc., the Hasbrouck Heights, NJ-based direct marketing firm, will merge Atlanta-based Response Media's list management division into its business. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“Like many other companies on the list side of the business, we've always been in friendly competition,” said Lon Mandel, president and CEO of SMS. “The joint venture is very simple; we're taking over its list management business, we'll be able to cross-sell all of our lists and its lists.”

In addition to the merger, the companies are also forming a strategic partnership that will bring Response Media's interactive services to SMS' clients. Mandel said these services include online prospecting, online customer trafficking and acquisition, online media and marketing strategies and online creative development, to name a few.

“These things are what our clients are looking for help in,” Mandel said. He said that Response Media would “still have its presence in Atlanta,” and “be retaining some staff there.”