Thomas Adalbert, former MD of The Preference Service, will lead the new division.The lifestyle survey brand Postal Preference Service will disappear.
IPT, led by chairman Lionel Thain, acquired the entire issued share capital of The Preference Service, valued at £4.3m.
The Preference Service was majority owned by the UK and Dutch Post Offices, with a database of four million households and 0.35 million email records.
IPT has been seeking merger and acquisition opportunities since it floated in December 2004. It had recently launched IPT Lifestyle, which combines email and postal data.
"We've built a business centred around email marketing while theirs centres around postal data. It seemed logical for us to put together these two areas of expertise," said IPT COO Martin Kiersnowski. "The way the two databases overlap means it's an instant win for everyone."
It is not clear whether IPT will move the postal survey data collection online. Kiersnowski said: "We will be reviewing all the options. It's a case of seeing if there are more cost-effective ways of collecting data."
The Preference Service launched in 2000 amid industry complaints that its Postal Preference Service surveys had an unfair advantage because they carried the Royal Mail brand and logo. Critics felt that this was an abuse of Royal Mail's position. The complaint went to the OFT but was not upheld. Following the acquisition, IPT will have no right to use any logo or name of the Royal Mail Group on the survey.
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