Q&As

It had been two weeks since I’d left my hometown. I hadn’t planned on taking take time off, but a set of compiled names I’d rented to a client was somehow used for a sweepstakes mail package – without my consent, of course.

After that mailing went out, I’d been informed by angry recipients that I might have already won a horizontal forwarding address. To postpone becoming a permanent resident on the do-not-promote lists, I decided to take a furlough in San Francisco, at least until the rainy season ended. I’d try to keep my hand in the list business, though.

My name is Sam Chaid, but in the trade I’m known as the Segmentation Shamus. I carry a data card.

AdLink Internet Media AG, a German online marketing firm, has acquired CibleClick Performances S.A., Paris, for 3.6 million euros ($4.6 million).

Banta Corp. has named Alison Heisler vice president and
chief customer officer.

Anti-spam group the Spamhaus Project has apparently had a change of heart and filed papers saying it will appeal an Illinois court ruling against it.

The Federal Trade Commission has charged several Nevada concerns with running a fraudulent sweepstakes operation through personalized direct mail.

In another show if its dominance in the search arena, Google reported nearly double the third-quarter profit it posted last year, blowing past both analysts’ expectations and the 38% drop in profits at Yahoo! for the same quarter.

MSC Industrial Direct Co. Inc. posted net income of $34.1 million for the fourth quarter, a 21% increase over $28.2 million in the prior year.

Equifax Inc. posted net income of $78.9 million for the third quarter, a 26% increase over $62.5 million in the prior-year period.

The Indian government this week approved amendments to its Information Technology Act of 2000 aimed at making life more difficult for online criminals, according to the Asia Times.

CVS has agreed to pay $152,000 in civil penalties after it violated a previous settlement agreement with New York State related to sweepstakes offers.