Global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget (NYSE:ET) has acquired privately-held Atlanta-based marketing automation provider Pardot extending ExactTarget’s ability to serve both business-to-business and business-to-consumer marketers worldwide.
ExactTarget paid $95.5 million in total consideration for Pardot, consisting of $85.5 million in cash and $10.0 million in ExactTarget common stock.
We’ve covered Pardot for years here at the TechJournal. The company has a unique culture that reminds us of the heady dot com era, such as a gong rung when sales are made, scooters, a pinball machine and ping pong table and more.
Pardot CEO David Cummings, active in the startup community in Atlanta, has participated in TechMedia events and Pardot presented its business plan at TechMedia’s Southeast Venture Conference.
Sells a lead-nurturing solution
“Marketers around the world are hungry for a lead nurturing solution that integrates with their broader marketing efforts and transcends the current offerings available from point solution providers,” said Scott Dorsey, ExactTarget co-founder and chief executive officer.
“With the addition of Pardot to the ExactTarget suite, we will redefine marketing automation and deliver the most scalable, comprehensive automation solution that helps both B-to-B and B-to-C marketers leverage the power of data to connect with customers across email, mobile, social media and the Web.”
Founded in 2007, Pardot is a leading software-as-a-service marketing automation platform to create, deploy and manage online lead nurturing marketing campaigns.
Featuring certified integrations with salesforce.com, NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SugarCRM, Pardot has a growing client list of more than 1,000 organizations, ranging from small and mid-sized businesses to divisions of large enterprise organizations. Pardot’s clients include Restaurant.com, comScore and twilio.
“Pardot has emerged as the leading provider of marketing automation for clients in the small business and mid-market,” said Adam Blitzer, Pardot co-founder and chief operating officer.
Goal remains the same
“Now as a part of the ExactTarget family, we can provide our clients with even greater capabilities, as we leverage ExactTarget’s substantial resources and industry leading cross-channel messaging platform. Our goal remains the same – to redefine marketing automation and help marketers around the globe achieve even greater results.”
Inc Magazine ranked Pardot number 172 on its Inc. 500 list of America’s fastest growing privately held companies in August.
ExactTarget will host a conference call at 5 p.m. Eastern today (Oct. 11, 2012) to discuss both acquisitions with the investment community.
To access the call from the U.S., dial 800.299.9630 or 617.786.2904 internationally. A live webcast of the call will also be available at www.ExactTarget.com/Investor.
An audio replay of the call will be available until Oct. 18, 2012 at 888.286.8010 or 617.801.6888 internationally. To access the replay, reference Conference ID 15228738.
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Tags: acquisition, Adam Bitzer, ExactTarget, lead nurturing solution, Pardot, Scott Dorsey
