Online direct marketing outfit IPT (Interactive Prospect Targeting) collects consumer data and then communicates offers over the internet. The company, led by chief executive Lionel Thain, joined AIM in December with a £3.9m funding at 68p. And in an appetising deal, IPT has bought Postal Preference Service (PPS), an offline and online direct marketing rival, for £4.3m, from the Royal Mail Group, the Dutch Post Office and two private individuals. Thain says PPS is a stellar player in ‘consumer preference data’, otherwise known as permission information, and boasts a database of 4m offline and 350,000 names, with its modus operandi to bring consumers and advertisers together. PPS’s preference service asks consumers to list mail preferences, helping advertisers ensure direct mail is welcomed, opened and responded to. Thain says the deal gives IPT extra sales channels, another stellar database in a new business sector, and the opportunity to use the internet to cut the cash PPS spends on data acquisition. Aside from today’s news, IPT’s growth looks assured thanks to the ongoing shift in direct marketing from offline to online – Thain claims the company has gotten off to a confident start so far in ’05, and insists online marketing spend is ‘the hottest’ advertising growth area. IPT, which claims to have no single UK competitor across all its products and services, already boasts a swathe of top names as clients, including FilmFour, Sky, Tesco and Norwich Union, and maiden preliminary figures for calendar 2004 revealed a 123% profits leap to over £1m, on sales lifted 37% to £8.4m. Along with the PPS news, IPT also flagged up a £3m placing, handled by Canaccord, with institutions at 115p. Ten new institutions joined the shareholder list in an oversubscribed funding, and the placing replenishes the cash spent on PPS. IPT, which is 42% held by its ambitious management team and employees, has an exciting future in digital direct marketing, and we think the shares have appeal.