Chief Marketer Staff

• Email

  Consumers Received a lot of Holiday “Junk:” Return Path

  A significant percentage of consumers noted a surge in promotional e-mail in their inboxes this year and considered much of it to be

• Agencies

  Marketing M&A Activity At Record Level In 2007: Study

  The 758 mergers and acquisitions within the marketing sector were valued at $60.3 billion — record levels for both quantity and total worth of all transactions, according to Petsky Prunier LLC.

• Harry & David Acquires Breakfast Products Marketer Wolferman’s

  Harry & David Holdings Inc. will acquire Wolferman’s from Williams Foods Inc. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

• Dick’s Sporting Goods President and COO Abdicates for Board Position

  William J. Colombo, president and COO of Dick’s Sporting Goods Inc., will step down from these positions on Feb. 2. Colombo will immediately assume the role of vice chairman.

• DiSciullo Named VP of DM and Data Services at The Information Engine

  Henry DiSciullo has been named vice president of direct marketing and data services at The Information Engine.

• Agencies

  Alltel Runs ‘Pick & Roll’ College Basketball Play

  Alltel Wireless is looking to score points with college basketball fans through a contest to pick winning teams in a slate of select games each week on fanu.com, a news and social networking site.

• Live from the NRF: Wal-Mart Canada Finds Target with In-Store TV

  Wal-Mart Canada saw good results when it launched an in-store TV network last summer in 60 stores.

• Dunkin’ Donuts and Mars Launch Hot Chocolate and New Donut Flavor

  Dunkin’ Donuts has teamed up with Mars to launch two new chocolate menu items featuring Milky Way and M&Ms brands.

• MySpace Agrees to Anti-predator Steps

  Social network MySpace has reached an agreement with most of the country’s state attorneys general on creating a new set of guidelines for protecting young members in its community.

• EPrize Promotes Opelt to VP Marketing

  Interactive promotions agency ePrize has promoted Alesya Opelt to vice president of marketing, a new post.