• by Jess Nelson , December 8, 2015

Email marketing company BlueHornet Tuesday announced its acquisition by Marlin Equity Partners, a global investment firm.

The San Diego-based company states the investment will help accelerate its product technology development and expand its customer service capabilities. No financial terms were disclosed, but BlueHornet will continue to run as an independent company under CEO Michael Biwer.

“With Marlin, we have gained a strategic partner who shares our vision and excitement for the substantial market opportunity that exists within the email marketing industry,” states Biwer. “As an independent company, we are now well-positioned to execute on our growth plan with greater speed, focus and innovation and to accelerate and improve the value proposition we bring to our customers and partners.”

“BlueHornet represents an outstanding platform for growth and we look forward to supporting the management team and providing the financial and operational resources to help the business succeed as a standalone company,” reiterates Jonah Sulak, partner at Marlin Equity Partners.  

BlueHornet is a SaaS email marketing solution that enables marketers to create and launch data-driven campaigns. The company works with enterprise and SMB clients, and in a variety of verticals including the retail, technology, media and publishing, gaming, electronics and hospitality industries.

BlueHornet adds to Marlin Equity Partners portfolio of SaaS technology platforms. The investment firm recently announced the acquisition of LiveOps Cloud Platform, a SaaS cloud contact center and customer service solution, on December 1.

LiveOps’ growth in cloud contact center software and on-demand agent services could prove to be a fruitful customer service powerhouse when combined with BlueHornet’s data-driven marketing campaigns.

Today’s acquisition also marks another move toward a consolidated email marketing industry as Marketing Cloud technology companies continue to actively compete for dominance in the space.

Email marketing giant Constant Contact was most recently acquired for $1.1 billion by technology solutions provider Endurance International Group in November.