Data gathering firm Motley Bunch Inc. has announced its purchase by email marketing solutions provider Return Path as both parties look to realise their full potential.

A price for the deal remains undisclosed but a number of small details have made their way out of the companies’ bases in New York and California respectively. For one, it has been announced that all existing Motley Bunch employees will be retained and relocated to Return Path’s offices in Sunnyvale, California – out of their current home in Pleasanton.

Eric Weinberg, former president of Nielsen Entertainment, has also been appointed Return Path COO amongst a flood of new updates. 

On the data path

Return Path works alongside brands such as Groupon and Gilt Groupe to help them lift and analyse consumer data generated by their email activity, with this providing valuable insights into their customer shopping behaviour. 

Motley Bunch works in a similar area, also within email data gathering, but with more of a focus on the consumer via solutions which help shoppers access their purchase data in one place. There are however Motley Bunch solutions for businesses which are also geared towards companies that demand technology for locating buyer preferences and other trends within direct messaging.  

Commenting on his appointment, Weinberg said Return Path is now well positioned to serve businesses wishing to turn their consumer data into “actionable insight”. 

Weinberg also dropped hints regarding the company’s plan to move in “multiple directions” but refused to name specific areas of focus. 

Securing rights

It has been an active last two months for Return Path as the company gained a patent for an advanced method of pinpointing exactly when a message reaches its intended recipient. 

With Motley Group now forming part of the company’s future plans, there is a clear focus on developing solutions which help clients make the most of their inbox data. 

“As Return Path invests in growing our marketing intelligence solutions, adding Motley Bunch’s parsing technology and Eric Weinberg’s leadership immediately accelerates our development,” commented Return Path CEO Matt Blumberg, who said the group’s new purchase is already helping companies increase their marketing revenue. 

“Generating competitive and consumer insight represents a new application of email data to inform a wide range of spending decisions, but it’s really just another dimension of the approach Return Path has always taken to solve big problems for leading brands,” he added