South Florida Media Group Acquires 80-Year-Old Welcome Wagon

Move Inc. sells unique marketing company to focus on online real estate network.

By Dylan Stableford
06/25/2009

South Florida Media Group has acquired Welcome Wagon, an 80-year-old marketing company, from Move Inc., the companies announced today.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Welcome Wagon was founded in 1928. The company employed a network of hostesses who hand-delivered baskets to new homebuyers with gifts and offers from local merchants. It became one of the nation's first major woman-operated, woman-focused companies.

The baskets, of course, have since been replaced by direct mail, but the company’s mission is essentially the same.

Move Inc. acquired Welcome Wagon in 2001. Last year, it decided last year to sell the company “in order to focus on its core online real estate businesses,” according to DeSilva + Phillips, which represented Move Inc. in the deal.

South Florida Media Group publishes a number of community newspapers, magazines and “hyper-local” Web sites—including Boca Raton News, Our Town News, Atlantic Ave magazine and In The Biz—serving the South Florida market.