Endurance International Group, Inc just announced that it intends to purchase Constant Contact Inc, the popular online marketing company most known for its small business email services. The deal is valued around $1.1 billion and will give Endurance International Group the ability to integrate Constant Contact's marketing tools with their current brands which include companies like Bluehost, HostGator and Domain.com. Endurance stated that discussions about the possible acquisition began in late 2014 and are predicted to close in early 2016. Once the deal is completed, Endurance will grow its subscribers from 3 million to approximately 5 million users.

What does this mean for the millions of small businesses that use Constant Contact? According to the announcement letter from Chief Channel Officer and Vice President Catherine Kniker, "nothing" for now.

"We are still the same great company with a world-class product suite and the same award-winning customer and partner care teams."

Services from both Endurance and Constant Contact will no doubt be cross-promoted to all current and future subscribers. In the short-term, these services will remain under their respective brands, but there is always the possibility that Endurance will attempt to combine them under a new name that would offer a more comprehensive set of features to their subscribers.

This could be a positive step for small businesses that have a difficult time keeping track of all the technology solutions at their disposal. On the other hand, it also might over simplify the services for the sake of convenience. Sometimes keeping services standalone rather than integrated allows for growth in multiple directions without impeding the value of one or the other. Still, its exciting — to us, at least — when companies continually look for new ways to optimize and enhance their offerings to clients.

Side Six has a variety of industry partnerships, including Constant Contact, to assist our smaller clients with their online marketing endeavors. Our business will always be built upon strong relationships. Why? Because they work. As Catherine went on to say:

"Our partner network has been instrumental to the success of Constant Contact, and I look forward to continuing to work with you in this next exciting chapter."

We're excited to see what comes from this proposed merger and will make sure to stay on top of any news that pertains to our clients. In the meantime, if anyone has questions feel free to contact us and we'll be more than happy to help get them answered.