Q&As

Merger and acquisition activity for Internet marketing, database marketing and customer relationship management firms is expected to increase this year, according to the 12th annual AdMedia Partners investment bank survey.

What’s in a name? Well, a name can mean a lot of headache, if it’s a child’s name and it accidentally receives an e-mail touting products for grown-ups. Especially if Unspam gets its way.

Unspam, an e-mail registry firm, has been lobbying individual states to create child-protection e-mail files, as Direct Newsline editor-at-large Ken Magill has reported in a series of articles.

Once states create these registries, Unspam would assumedly win the rights to maintain them.

We don’t want to commit e-mail heresy. But are open rates and click-through rates the only metrics you can use for determining the success of your e-mail newsletter? They certainly are not. Others include the turn-off rate and the inbox delivery rate.

Five months after Hurricane Katrina caused at least $200 million in damage and closed its doors for a semester, Tulane University re-opened for classes last month. And it used its e-mail newsletter to welcome students back.

The Federal Trade Commission levied a $10 million fine

America Online has won a $5.6 million award against a Minnesota man who sent billions of spam e-mails in 2003 selling everything from Viagra to online college degrees.

A laptop containing names and internal Ameriprise Financial Inc. account identification numbers for 158,000 clients was stolen from an Ameriprise employee

The Reader’s Digest Association Inc. reported a net loss of $122.4 million for the second quarter, down from net income of $57.8 million the previous year.

Deluxe Corp. reported net income of $39 million for the fourth quarter, down from net income of $47 million the year before

Advo Inc. reported net income of $12 million for the first quarter, up from net income of $8.1 million the year before.