Zustek acquires Adverb Media, becomes Zeta Interactive

E-mail marketing firm Zustek Corporation has acquired interactive marketing firm Adverb Media, becoming Zeta Interactive.

Adverb Media is comprised of DigitalGrit, a direct response and search marketing firm; Temel, a brand strategy and creative agency and RelevantNoise, a social technology firm. 

The combined companies will become Zeta Interactive and offer interactive marketing services, incorporating e-mail, search, social media mining, Web development and strategic and creative services.

Al DiGuido will be CEO of Zeta Interactive. DiGuidoo was appointed CEO of Zustek last month after being dismissed at Epsilon last year, when that company was going through major reorganization and acquisition.

The Adverb Media acquisition comes after Zustek's own announcement last month that it had been acquired by Investcorp Technology Partners, a major private-equity investor in small- and medium-sized technology businesses in North America and Europe.

“Part of the strategy of the Investcorp acquisition was to use the e-mail marketing platform as the basis for an interactive company, and the acquisition of Adverb provides us with a range of interactive services to build on,” DiGuido said. “Our goal is to provide a one-stop shop for marketers, who want to leverage the power of the Internet without having to deal with four or five different agencies.”

Zeta Interactive, will remain headquartered in New York. The combined 300 employees of Zustek and Adverb Media will keep their offices in California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Nevada, New Jersey, Texas, Rhode Island and India. Clients of the company include Time Inc., Sony Electronics, Cephalon and LiveNation.