J.L. Halsey to Acquire Lyris

E-mail marketing pioneer Lyris has agreed to be acquired by J.L. Halsey, a holding company, for $24 million. After the closing, founder and CEO John Buckman will step down and take on an advisory role.

Buckman will be replaced by current General Manager Luis Rivera, who will assume the additional role of chief operating officer for Halsey. Before joining Lyris, Rivera worked for Turbolinux as director of international sales.

After the closing, Lyris will operate as a subsidiary of Halsey.

The sale agreement stipulates J.L. Halsey will pay Lyris stockholders $23.9 million at closing, plus $5.6 million two years later on condition revenue targets are met. Lyris is best known for its ListManager campaign management product, but also offers email deliverability, spam filtering and hosting solutions.

The company was founded in 1994 by Buckman and his wife Jan Hanford. Since that time, ListManager has been sold to approximately 4,000 customers, according to Lyris. 2004 clients included the Bush/Cheney and Dean for America political campaigns.