Harte-Hanks Agrees to Sell California Shoppers

By: Press Release | Dirks, Van Essen & Murray

BREA, CA - September 19, 2013 - Harte-Hanks, Inc. (NYSE: HHS), an international direct and targeted marketing company, today announced it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the assets of its Shoppers division to subsidiaries of OpenGate Capital for approximately $22.5 million in cash proceeds. The transaction is expected to close before September 30, 2013 upon satisfaction of customary closing conditions.
 
Dirks, Van Essen & Murray, a newspaper merger and acquisition firm in Santa Fe, New Mexico, represented Harte-Hanks in the transaction.
 
Robert Philpott, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, "Shoppers joined Harte-Hanks in 1972. The PennySaver brand is very well known in California, with a loyal readership of its publications and a committed advertiser base. The staff in our Shoppers team is dedicated and hard-working. However we believe that the Shoppers business is no longer a good strategic fit with the other businesses within Harte-Hanks. The single-minded attention that OpenGate Capital will now give to Shoppers will put it in a much stronger position to thrive. I want to thank everyone in Shoppers for their many years of devoted service and recognize the contribution that they have made to Harte-Hanks.
 
"Harte-Hanks is now in the position to focus on our core business. We are in the early stages of the development of a new strategy for the Company. The sale of our Shoppers business will make that process more streamlined and it will enable us to work towards a more precise definition of our own story."
 
Harte-Hanks is an international direct and targeted marketing company that provides multichannel direct and digital marketing services and shopper advertising opportunities to a wide range of local, regional, national and international consumer and business-to-business marketers. Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing helps its clients obtain insight about their customers through database and marketing analytics. Based on that insight Harte-Hanks Direct Marketing designs, implements and executes multichannel marketing programs on behalf of its clients using direct and digital communications.
 
Los Angeles-based OpenGate Capital is a global private buyout firm specializing in the acquisition and operation of businesses throughout North America, Europe and Latin America. The firm's portfolio includes businesses operating in a variety of industries and generates revenues of nearly $2 billion.