Sponsored Content WEBINAR: ELECTION 2008: E-mail Tips from a Political Insider   WEBINAR: Becoming the Illusionist: The Magic of Using "Brand" to Drive Response without Results Disappearing in the Process   WEBINAR: Score and Win Through Cooperation   TOOLS OF THE TRADE: Holiday's are prime-time for email marketing - maximize your ROI by getting to the inbox   ON DEMAND WEBINAR--MASTER CLASS: High Performance Online and Off-line Strategies for Large Scale Customer Acquisition   FREE WHITE PAPER - Direct Mail and the Internet Find any supplier you need - agencies, CRM, fulfillment, lists, e-commerce, paper, printers, telemarketing, and more. Featured Categories Lists and Data Telemarketing Database Marketing E-commerce Web Marketing Agency & Creative Services Print, Production & Paper Lists and Data Processing :: view all categories Get free access to more than 50,000 list data cards - one of the most comprehensive databases in the industry. >> Search Now DIRECT Buzz Blog Webinars Buyer's Guide Calculators JobZone ListFinder Promo Calendar Research Store E-Newsletters Print Magazine This Month in Direct Magazine Deal With It Direct had a full house for this year's list roundtable. Considering all the additional responsibilities on brokers' plates, that's impressive... See Full July Issue

Online car marketer AUTOBYTEL INC. acquired iDriveonline Inc., a Houston-based provider of automotive customer loyalty and retention marketing programs, for about $11.7 million in cash and stock. Autobytel, of Irvine, CA, will keep a unit in Houston, but its size will be determined over the next six months, said CEO Jeffrey Schwartz in a statement. None of iDriveonline's 30 employees will lose their jobs now, but that may change in the future, Schwartz noted.

WEST TELEMARKETING SERVICES planned to lay off 300 workers when it closed its Fort Smith, AR call center in early May, according to reports. The center has operated since 1998. Company officials said they began planning the closing in 2000. When the lease for the 14,000-square-foot building came up for renewal this year, the company decided to close. They noted the jobs would not be sent overseas. Rather, they blamed the cutbacks on a weak economy, the national do-not-call list and other industry restrictions.

Over 1 million AMERICA ONLINE members entered a sweepstakes to win a Porsche Boxster seized from a spammer. AOL reported that during the first 24 hours of the sweepstakes on March 30, entries were being processed at a rate of several hundred per minute. The promotion has generated 3 million page views after being showcased on AOL's “Welcome” screen. AOL seized the car at the successful conclusion of a legal action taken against the spammer, who was caught thanks to members reporting spam.

THE CHICAGO ASSOCIATION OF DIRECT MARKETING named C. Eduard Bjorncrantz the 2004 Charles S. Downs Direct Marketer of the Year. Bjorncrantz's 23-year career — from 1967 to 1990 — at Sears, Roebuck & Co. took him from a catalog marketing manager in an Arlington, VA in-store catalog pickup desk to national manager for advertising production in Chicago. At Sears and subsequent top marketing positions with Lab Safety Supply, Moore Medical Corp., Quill Corp. and J.C. Whitney & Co., Bjorncrantz pioneered the development of electronic publishing systems for catalog and direct mail advertising. He's now a partner in The Callahan Group LLC of Rosemont, IL, a consulting firm specializing in strategic marketing.

AMERICAN PHARMACISTS estimate they have lost 10% of their business to Canadian pharmacies — usually via the Internet — and most expect that loss to continue unless the government limits the practice. According to a new study, conducted by NOP World Health, one-third of uninsured patients who compare prices when buying drugs tell pharmacists they will fill their prescriptions through Canadian pharmacies. The study shows that a small proportion of pharmacies — usually independents, rather than chains — are trying to compete with their less-expensive Canadian competition by negotiating prices with customers. However, American pharmacies usually won't discount prices by more than 10%.

A FEDERAL JUDGE in Sacramento, CA ruled that the state legislature can block an overwhelming number of electronic messages to state lawmakers to combat a potential breakdown of its e-mail system, according to reports. While the constitutional guarantee of free speech extends to the Internet, reasonable restrictions may be imposed as long as they are not content-based, serve a significant government interest and leave other communication channels open, wrote U.S. Magistrate Judge John F. Moulds.

In a bid to increase online sales, U.K.-based bank ALLIANCE & LEICESTER is investing 10 million pounds ($18.4 million U.S) in Web marketing and advertising this year. According to reports, the campaign is the bank's first effort to redefine itself as a direct bank amid growing evidence that customers are becoming more confident in using technology to process financial transactions. The bank's online business tripled last year.

THE SPIEGEL GROUP retained Miller Buckfire Lewis Ying & Co. to solicit bids for its Eddie Bauer business. The Downers Grove, IL-based cataloger and retailer also reached an agreement with Pangea Holdings Ltd. under which Pangea will acquire Spiegel's Newport News Inc. subsidiary. Pangea will pay $25 million in cash for Newport News, and will assume some of the company's liabilities. Newport News will continue to be based in New York, and also will maintain the distribution facility it operates in Virginia. Spiegel, which is undergoing a bankruptcy restructuring, will file the Newport News acquisition agreement with the Bankruptcy Court, opening the acquisition to other bids. Final approval of the bidding process was anticipated in late April.

W.W. GRAINGER INC. has divided its operations into three groups, and chief operating officer Wesley M. Clark will leave the firm June 1. Chicago-based Grainger supplies businesses and institutions with facilities maintenance products. Under the new structure, the United States operations, which include branches, distribution centers and an outsourcing business, will be run by James T. Ryan, who was promoted from executive vice president to group president. The other units include Grainger's international business and Lab Safety Supply, its DM arm. All units will report to CEO Richard L. Keyser.

Japan's YAMANOUCHI PHARMACEUTICAL CO. will sell cataloger Bear Creek Corp. to investment fund Wasserstein & Co. for $260 million, according to reports. The Medford. OR company is the largest direct marketer of fruits and food gifts in the United States through its Harry and David subsidiary. It also operates mail order nursery business Jackson & Perkins. Yamanouchi is also selling its three nutritional and household products DM operations — Shaklee Corp. and Inobys in the United States and Shaklee Japan K.K. — to a partnership formed by two U.S. investment funds for $310 million.

SHOPPERTRAK tapped Jan L. Davis as its president and CEO. Davis had been with TransUnion LLC, Chicago, for eight years, most recently as an executive vice president and president of its TrueLink division. John Banaher, former chief operating officer of TrueLink, will become the division's president. Shoppertrak, also Chicago-based, offers in-store data-gathering programs to clients, including customer-traffic counting capabilities.

Computer marketer GATEWAY INC. planned to close its network of 188 company-operated retail stores on April 9. About 2,500 retail positions will be eliminated. The company will continue direct sales of Gateway products online and by phone and is pursuing other retail distribution of its products both in the U.S. and abroad.