Merkle (www.merkle.com), the nation's fastest growing customer relationship marketing (CRM) agency, today announced its acquistion of Pittsburgh-based IMPAQT, a recognized leader in search marketing. IMPAQT's expertise in SEM, SEO, bid management and search analytics complements Merkle's extensive analytics, database and digital marketing capabilities and expands its integrated customer marketing solutions. The combination of search with Merkle's CRM assets is unique in the marketplace and will provide a lens into customer behavior that will allow brands to further optimize conversion, media measurement, keyword and bid strategy at the intersection of search and database marketing.

In February 2011, The Forrester Wave recognized IMPAQT as a market leader among search marketing agencies. Its roster of clients includes world-class brands such as Mercedes, Office Depot, Chase, Tiffany & Co. and Penske. IMPAQT is a formidable force in the search marketing arena and has experienced significant growth, now with over 80 employees and projected gross revenue in 2011 to exceed $90M. IMPAQT's proficiency in search combined with Merkle's longstanding expertise in CRM strategy, data management and analytics will give marketers the opportunity to enhance both customer acquisition and engagement.

"The acquisition brings together two standout companies," said Merkle CEO David Williams. "This is an exciting time for us, and we are looking forward to putting this unique combination of competencies and capabilities that search and CRM bring together to work for our existing and future clients. The fusion of both organizations unites our mutual drive for innovation, entrepreneuralism, analytics and market leadership."

Merkle's acquistion of IMPAQT signals its ongoing commitment to accelerating its digital strategy to include investments in digital acquisition and engagement capabilities, focusing on e-mail, mobile, social, site optimization, performance display and search. In addition, Merkle continues to expand its staff and capabilities and is evaluating acquistions in digital creative, analytics, technology and strategy. Through the integration of these existing competencies, new digital technologies and the skills of its industry experts, Merkle provides its customer access to best-in-class CRM across CRM across media and channels, both online and off.

"IMPAQT's acquisition by Merkle will greatly expand our growth opportunities in the coming years," says Richard Hagerty, IMPAQT's CEO. "We look forward to our two companies working together on innovations within areas of marketing that have yet to be targeted by our competition, defining new relationships between CRM and Search and expanding our already extensive analytics capabilities."