LiveRamp Holdings, Inc. (commonly LiveRamp), is a San Francisco, California-based SaaS company that offers a data connectivity platform whose services include data onboarding, the transfer of offline data online for marketing purposes. The company now known as LiveRamp was created from the combination of Acxiom (founded in 1969) and a company it acquired named LiveRamp in 2014. The company eventually took the LiveRamp name, after spinning off the Acxiom Marketing Services (AMS) division to global advertising network Interpublic Group of Companies. The company has offices in the United States, Europe, Australia, and Asia. History Acxiom foundation and early years Acxiom was founded in 1969 as Demographics, Inc. by Charles D. Ward in Conway, Arkansas. The company was initially involved in producing mailing lists using phonebooks and payroll processing. In 1980, the company changed its name to Conway Communications Exchange, and in 1983 it incorporated as CCX Network, Inc. and made its first public offering. In 1988 it became Acxiom Corporation. 1990s In November 1997, Acxiom acquired Buckley Dement, a provider of healthcare fulfillment and professional medical lists. In May 1998, Acxiom made the announcement that it would acquire one of its competitors, May & Speh. 2000s In 2003, Wired Magazine criticized the company for only accepting third-party consumer opt-out requests from the Direct Marketing Association. In early 2004, Acxiom acquired part of Claritas, a European data provider. In 2005, Acxiom acquired Digital Impact for $140 million and integrated its digital and online services into its business. In 2005 Acxiom was a nominee for the Big Brother Awards for Worst Corporate Invader for a tradition of data brokering. In early 2006, EMC Corporation acquired Acxiom’s information grid software in a $30 million deal. EMC later declined to exercise an option to acquire additional resources from Acxiom and discontinued work on the software. On May 16, 2007, Acxiom agreed to be bought by investment firms Silver Lake Partners and ValueAct Capital in an all-cash deal valued at $3 billion, including the assumption of about $756 million of debt. However, in October 2007, citing poor credit markets, the companies terminated the deal. The company also announced that Chairman Charles Morgan was retiring upon the selection of a successor. On January 17, 2008, Acxiom named John Meyer (from Alcatel-Lucent) as new CEO and president. On July 11, 2008, Acxiom acquired ChoicePoint's database marketing solutions division. Early 2010s In 2010, Acxiom acquired part of GoDigital,