Acxiom Corp., Conway, AR, has bolstered its offerings to the financial services sector with the Dec. 31 acquisition of three database marketing units from Deluxe Corp., St. Paul, MN.
Acxiom has acquired Deluxe Data Resources, Laguna Hills, CA, a property data compiler; Deluxe MarketWise, Bloomington, MN, a customer information management software provider to banks and credit card issuers; and Fusion Marketing, Memphis, TN, a designer of database marketing campaigns for banks. Fusion generates $15 million of the more than $20 million in combined annual revenues of the three units.
The purchases, combined with the October acquisition of service bureau Computer Graphics for $25 million, are part of company leader Charles Morgan’s plan in 1999 to bulk up Acxiom’s data content and consulting capability for financial services clients.
While Acxiom is growing through acquisition, Deluxe is paring down to its core competencies of check printing, payment and risk management services. The three units had made up the Deluxe Direct Response division, which now ceases to exist. Deluxe also completed the sales Jan. 4 of Paper Direct and Current Social Expressions units – excluding its direct mail check printing operations – to the Taylor Corp., North Mankato, MN. The five sold units represent 1998 revenues of $240 million.
Deluxe spokesman Stu Alexander said the firm will continue to participate in information-based businesses but instead of owning the data it will now acquire it from providers such as Acxiom. Acxiom is the data warehouse manager and a partner in the Deluxe Debit Bureau but the three units it has purchased had no relation to that operation.
