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Return Path Acquires NetCreations

Adding Top-Tier E-Mail Acquisition, List Management and Market Research Services to Return Path's E-mail Performance Suite Creates Unrivaled E-mail Services Powerhouse

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 30, 2004--

Return Path, Inc., the premier e-mail performance management company, announces today that it has acquired NetCreations, Inc., the leading provider of permission-based e-mail acquisition and sampling services, from Consodata Group Limited, a unit of Seat P.G., one of the world's leading multi-platform directory companies. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed.
The merger creates a company that will serve 1,500 top U.S. marketers as clients, has 500 top web sites and ISPs as data partners, 650 channel partners, and a registered user base of 41 million active consumers that grows by nearly 50,000 per day. NetCreations will become a division of Return Path, led by President Michael Mayor and the current NetCreations team. Mayor will also join Return Path's Board of Directors.

"Because of its high permission standards, NetCreations has long been a highly-regarded leader in e-mail acquisition and technology," said Return Path CEO Matt Blumberg. "Joining forces combines the gold standard of e-mail deliverability and performance with our counterpart in e-mail acquisition, providing clients of both companies an expanded breadth of services and access to thought leaders in e-mail performance across list building, list quality, e-mail deliverability and best practices. We are thrilled to welcome Mike and his team, with many years of experience in e-mail marketing services, to Return Path."

The combined company will offer marketers an unparalleled suite of best-in-class e-mail marketing solutions to improve the performance of their customer acquisition and retention e-mail programs. These solutions include: Delivery Assurance Solutions to make sure opt-in e-mails are successfully delivered to customers' inboxes; Strategic Solutions to provide clients with actionable, affordable e-mail strategies; and NetCreations for list management, rental, market research and list quality solutions. Because high quality lists are pivotal to e-mail delivery, the NetCreations' list building and rental products will fit seamlessly into Return Path's existing best-practice solutions.

"We've always held Return Path's expertise and services in high regard and as being on par with our own," Mayor said. "All of us at NetCreations are truly excited to be part of this emerging powerhouse of unique and highly effective email marketing tools and look forward to the many synergies that they will surely produce for our partners and clients."

NetCreations was formerly part of Seat P.G.-owned Consodata Group, most of whose operating units were acquired by Acxiom Corporation (NASDAQ:ACXM) earlier this year.

About Return Path, Inc.

Founded in 1999, Return Path is an e-mail performance management company dedicated to improving the content, reach and delivery of permission-based e-mail programs. More than 350 companies have used Return Path to increase response rates and deliverability of their e-mail programs through its list maintenance, e-mail deliverability, and strategic best practice solutions. Return Path helps consumers and businesses maintain online relationships through a proprietary E-mail Change of Address (ECOA) service that includes e-mail forwarding and is the official ECOA service for the United States Postal Service, for which 15 million users have opted-in to date. The company's investors include Sutter Hill Ventures, Mobius Venture Capital, Flatiron Partners, and JP Morgan Partners. For more information, please visit www.returnpath.net, e-mail info@returnpath.net, or call toll-free 866-362-4577.

About NetCreations Inc.

NetCreations, Inc. is the leading provider of e-mail acquisition marketing solutions to Fortune 500 clients. In 1996, it pioneered and patented the "Double Opt-in" list building process which anti-spam groups, ISPs, legislators, industry trade groups, marketers and consumers agree is the highest form of permission. Today it manages the largest database of Double Opt-In addresses. Through its three divisions, PostMasterDirect, SurveyDirect, and NetCreations Technology Service, NetCreations is the trusted source for more than 1000 active clients in the Business-to-Consumer, Business-to-Business, Market Research, and Technology markets. Its management team has been, and continues to be, instrumental in forging best practices for responsible e-mail marketers. For more information, please visit www.netcreations.com.

Contacts


Trylon Communications for Return Path
Harrison Wise, 212-725-2295 ext. 29
Harrisonw@tryloncommunications.com

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