Ten-year-old European email marketing firm eCircle is selling a majority stake to Boston-based private equity house TA Associates for a big $60 million.
Headquartered in Munich, and with 200 staff across offices in UK, France and Italy, the company claims to send over five billion emails every quarter using its web-based system, and claims over 500 enterprise clients and 200 staff.
The aim seems to be to grow eCircle across the Atlantic. TA’s managing director Jonathan Meeks says in the announcement: “The company has become the cross-border leader in a fragmented European market.” He will join eCircle’s board as a director along with J. Morgan Seigler.
Though figures for “online advertising” continue to hold above other media, but alongside TV, a good chunk of “online” still means email marketing, which Forrester says will grow from