Alterian Acquires Email Marketing Software Company Dynamics Direct; Integration of Email and Online Marketing to Strengthen Alterian Marketing Suite.

CHICAGO -- Alterian (LSE:ALN), the leading global provider of database marketing and customer insight solutions, announced today it has acquired Dynamics Direct, an email and online marketing technology innovator. Based in Los Angeles, Dynamics Direct was recently ranked as one of the world's leading email marketing software providers by Jupiter Research (Email Marketing Buyer's Guide, 2005). Its rapidly growing partner and customer base includes clients such as Princess Cruises, Countrywide Financial Services, and Marsh Affinity Insurance and marketing services providers (MSPs) such as Euro RSCG Worldwide and Vertis.

Alterian, whose partner list includes eight of the top 10 database marketing services providers in North America (evaluated by Forrester Research)(1), will introduce immediately a new product, Dynamic Messenger, which adds email and online marketing execution capabilities to its award winning Alterian Marketing Suite.

Through the acquisition, Alterian seeks to meet a critical marketing need: the integration of online and database marketing. Shar VanBoskirk, a senior analyst at Forrester Research's Marketing Strategy and Technology research team, states: "Multichannel marketing and the level of analytics needed to make it work can't come about until email is part of a marketer's database marketing operations.(2)"

The transaction results in the most comprehensive marketing services platform of its kind, merging permission-based email and online marketing with core database marketing operations such as modeling, campaign management, list management, data visualization, analytics and reporting. Marketers can analyze and create highly targeted list segments in seconds using intuitive visualization tools and immediately execute rich, behaviorally driven campaigns from their desktop, encompassing multiple online touch points. These include email featuring fully dynamic content, Web form data collection and personalized Website landing pages.

"The marketplace is demanding online and multichannel marketing solutions featuring the analytical rigor and integrated functionality of database marketing," said David Eldridge, Alterian's chief executive officer. "To meet this need we believe that Dynamics Direct's established presence in North America, deep experience in database and direct marketing, best of breed offering and approach to the marketplace is the ideal complement to Alterian's existing technology and channel relationships with MSPs. The combination of an expanded Alterian Marketing Suite that encompasses online marketing with MSPs' data, services and expertise will provide tremendous value by enabling marketers to execute highly targeted, measurable multichannel marketing campaigns."

"Effective multichannel marketing is no longer an option for businesses; it is a critical success factor," says Eric Schmitt, executive vice president of The Allant Group. "We have found that it is impossible to develop and deploy relevant, strategically sound multichannel marketing activities without a combination of analytical, segmentation and execution management capabilities. Email and online marketing must be linked to analytics and the marketing database, which makes this acquisition very timely."

As a component of the Alterian Marketing Suite, the Dynamic Messenger email marketing solution will comprise a fully customizable client interface, an XML Web Services API, a .NET Library supporting broad online marketing execution functionality, and a flexible real-time database system which has already been integrated with the Alterian Engine. Dynamic Messenger's distributed platform also features enterprise class user management controls which provide permission based access to all data, content and functionality. This ensures appropriate influence at the corporate level over messaging, content and compliance while still permitting localized campaign selection and execution. Online campaign history and results can be integrated with a marketer's offline data for cross-analysis.

Jason McNamara, president and CEO of Dynamics Direct says "Alterian and its partners provide Dynamics Direct with an immediate international distribution channel. Our customers will benefit from Alterian's data modeling, visualization and analytical applications and will enjoy additional resources and infrastructure to better support and service them. In addition, an on-premise licensing option will give MSP's a scalable, customizable, and cost effective alternative to current email ASP and CPM pricing models."

The expanded Alterian Marketing Suite is available to MSPs on a hosted or on-premise basis.

About Alterian

Alterian (www.alterian.com) is a global provider of integrated database marketing, customer insight and marketing execution solutions which enable businesses to improve the effectiveness of marketing activity through sophisticated customer insight. Alterian products are based on the Alterian Engine, which provides unrivalled performance, speed and scalability for large volumes of detailed data. Delivered via its network of over 70 business partners, Alterian's technology currently helps blue-chip organizations including, Merrill Lynch, Daily Telegraph, Premier Farnell, Amnesty International and Vodafone, to benefit from unparalleled actionable analysis of data. Alterian also powers solutions for leading Marketing Services Providers such as Experian, InfoUSA and Carlson Marketing. With international headquarters in Bristol, UK and North American headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, Alterian was founded in 1997 and is listed on the techMARK Index of the London Stock Exchange (ALN).

(1) The Forrester Wave(TM): Database Marketing Service Providers, Q1 2006, Forrester Research Inc., January 10, 2006

(2) The Forrester Wave(TM): Email Marketing Service Providers, Q4 2005, Forrester Research Inc., December 22, 2005