New York-based Return Path said Monday it would buy up everything Louisville-based ThreatWave had to offer — including the “talent,” or about 10 people. Adding another layer of e-mail intelligence was too much for the company to pass up.
“There are two primary reasons this was very attractive to us,” said George Bilbrey, Return Path’s founder and president. “The first was the team, some are ex-Return Pathers. All are extremely skilled. The second is the data.”
Return Path declined to share the acquisition price but said ThreatWave’s collection of mail-exchange records of more than 30 million domains will help get the right e-mail messages to the right recipients. These MX records can, for example, show what’s happening in the e-mail ecosystem, including bad senders or fake accounts. It can also help senders figure out why an e-mail bounced or is marked undeliverable.
“ESPs (e-mail service providers) have a lot of different people using their systems. And one thing their operation teams are interested in is whether clients are using the system badly,” Bilbrey said. “The set of data they have pulled together is remarkably robust.”
Return Path, which employs about 200 in Broomfield, said ThreatWave will continue to operate as its own brand and the database will be integrated into other Return Path products. At some point, the ThreatWave team, which includes former Return Path executive and ThreatWave founder Tom Bartel, will move to Broomfield.
