Return Path has signed a deal to acquire Habeas and it is expected to close within a couple of weeks.

According to Return Path CEO and Chairman, Matt Blumberg, “The one thing we do know at this point is that we will be maintaining both Sender Score Certified and the Habeas SafeList as separate and distinct whitelist programs indefinitely. So for now, it’s business as usual.”

Some of the benefits notes are:

• increased scalability
• more and better data products
• expanded service levels
• access to a broader “footprint” of ISPs and filters
• greater base of knowledge from addition of Habeas employees

Return Path and Habeas are partners of SocketLabs, Inc. With the merger SocketLabs will be even more empowered to offer its customers extended deliverability services to augment Hurricane Server.

You can read Matt Blumberg’s blog post regarding the acquisition here.

Or you can read the press release here.

According to ReturnPath’s newly released Q2 2008 reputation benchmark report, properly configured MTAs are over 200% more successful at delivering messages.

The report studies a significant sample of email messages received by ISPs and their ultimate outcome i.e. delivered, filtered, rejected, etc…

The report underlines how important it is to have a properly configured mail server. In the report improperly configured email servers are classified as Illegitimate and, according to ReturnPath’s data, these illegitimate (improperly configured) servers have a delivery rate of less than half of that of properly configured servers.

This report is very insightful, 5 pages, and includes great colorful charts. I would highly recommend it to any email sender.

You can get the report here.