Web security and services firm VeriSign Inc. said yesterday that it had terminated its relationship with Naviant Inc. and its 24/7 Mail division on the heels of what VeriSign called an unauthorized announcement by Naviant.
The press release in question, which was distributed by Naviant, Boca Raton, FL, last week, announced an exclusive e-mail list partnership between 24/7 and VeriSign, Mountain View, CA.
Yesterday’s statement by VeriSign said that 24/7 had issued an “unauthorized and erroneous press release that mischaracterized the intended relationship between the two companies to manage mailings to domain name customers of VeriSign's registrar. At the request of VeriSign, 24/7 Mail has retracted the press release and notified its customers of the error.”
Naviant also released a statement yesterday announcing that the relationship was over.
“A dispute arose regarding the timing and details of a press release,” said senior vice president Richard Kaufman. “24/7 Mail's management feels that there weren't material inaccuracies involved.”
As an example of the information VeriSign found to be inaccurate, a spokeswoman said the deal was not exclusive.
Last week’s release said the partnership between the companies would have added 1.9 million business-to-business and consumer names to 24/7 Mail, bringing its permission-based database to 41 million records.
Naviant manages more than 100 million fully permission-based e-mail address files and more than 38 million U.S. Postal Service files.
