Silverpop Acquires Vtrenz

Last Tuesday, email marketer Silverpop announced it was acquiring Vtrenz, which provides an integrated email / Web marketing suite.

This is the third recent acquisition by a email service provider—the others being Kefta by Actiom Impact and Loyalty Matrix by Responsys. I think it’s the most intriguing of the three, because the other two primarily added analytical capabilities, while Vtrenz adds a strong Web marketing component. This makes Vtrenz more of an integrated online marketing solution than the other two—or, at least, it will if and when the Vtrenz technology is actually linked with Silverpop. (For the moment, from the press release, it appears that Vtrenz will remain a separate operation.)

It’s pretty clear to me that that the major email providers will all need to expand in this direction. This is a natural extension for them and part of the inevitable consolidation within the online marketing arena. It’s certainly a good thing for customers who will benefit from working with fewer systems while creating more tightly integrated Web and email campaigns.