The week that was: 27 August 2010
New boss at Blackbay, poll dismisses Royal Mail plans, and Deutsche Post splashes out on nugg.ad… Welcome to this week’s scintillating news round-up, courtesy of Post&Parcel. We are approaching 2,000 members – and we are after even more; so tell all your colleagues, superiors, inferiors, family and friends about us.
First up is news from Blackbay, who announced the appointment of Nigel Doust as its new CEO. Company chairman Avi Azulai described Doust as the “right person to propel Blackbay forward into a market leading position”. Doust will take up his position as Blackbay’s CEO in early September and joins the company fresh from his position as vice president at Sybase where he managed and led the Sybase enterprise mobility business in Europe. “My position at Blackbay provides me with a fantastic opportunity to take a fast growing company to the top of its market,” explained Doust. “Initially, my focus will be on continuing Blackbay’s commitment to deliver market leading levels of service and support to our existing customers, driving sales, and expanding the company’s operations within the North American enterprise mobility solutions space.” Previously, Doust was vice president Europe for mobile specialist Pointsec where he drove significant market growth. Doust also served as vice president World Wide Mobility for Extended Systems, another mobility specialist software company. Again he grew the global business and was instrumental in the sale of Extended Systems to Sybase.
In the UK, six in ten voters believe the Royal Mail should remain a wholly publicly-owned organisation and just 15% support privatising the company, according to a You Gov poll published on Monday. The poll was commissioned by the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and Labour leadership candidate Ed Balls. The poll shows that the majority of Conservative (51%) and Liberal Democrat voters (63%) support a fully publicly-owned Royal Mail, with support for public ownership rising among older age groups who are more likely to be reliant on the postal service (70% of over 60s). Only 13% of voters back suggestions to sell a minority stake in the Royal Mail to a private investor. Balls said: “The universal post is a vital and trusted service for millions of people, particularly pensioners and those living in more remote areas. And this poll shows voters reject plans by the coalition government for a full or partial sell off of the Royal Mail. Rather than privatising or breaking up the Royal Mail I believe we must keep it universal in the public sector, as Labour promised in our manifesto. The Post Office is also a trusted source of financial products and services so we should transform it into a ‘People’s Bank’. I don’t think we have heard the last of this one!
Deutsche Post has announced it has acquired “Europe’s largest targeting platform”, nugg.ad. In taking over the company, Deutsche Post said it has “expanded its competence as a service provider in the on-line advertising market”. The Group also said it has consolidated new areas of growth in online marketing fully in accordance with its 2015 strategy. As a subsidiary, nugg.ad will continue to be an independent targeting service provider for marketers and advertising agencies from the company’s headquarters in Berlin. The company structure remains unchanged and will be expanded. As a subsidiary of Deutsche Post, nugg.ad wants to drive forward the vision of a new market standard for targeting campaigns. “nugg.ad is an ideal addition to Deutsche Post’s portfolio. Its solid track record of success and strength of innovation, as well as its clear focus on data protection and sustainability, impressed us,” said Jürgen Gerdes, Group chairman responsible for mail at Deutsche Post DHL. “We are confident that we will establish our position in the online advertising market with nugg.ad and wish to make available a lasting independent technology platform for the European market,” he added.
And finally…
Bankrupt mailing and fulfillment solutions provider Buhrs has resumed business activities. Read all about it, here.
It’s a national holiday on Monday in the UK (hurrah!). But fear not, we will return on Tuesday.
