Last week Mortech put out a press release announcing that there were big things to come in 2010 from their company. The release follows the dismissal of a lawsuit brought on by former business partner LendingTree. We all know about the LendingTree/Mortech suit so there is no need to go into it again, but if you are not aware you can get your self caught up here and here.

This announcement is interesting and humorous at the same time, because clearly has an underlying  agenda. Here is what I interpreted it to be saying, “Yeah, we got the shake down from LT. Yes, they don’t want to work with us any longer, but we are still going to serve their clients and guess what, we are still going to work with Search Engines. In fact, we are also going to take our technology and build out our own rate marketplace and compete directly against you.” This was no kiss and make up press release. Here are a few key snippets:

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In May of this year I revealed an interesting case between a lead generation company and a few of its key employees. The case, which you can read about here in my original post, included allegations of fraud, embezzlement and contract infringement, now has a few new updates to mention.

Today the Riverside County Sheriffs department has released information on their website (Case #TE092660124) that they have taken Edward Shin into custody. Shin has been given a $575,000 bail. Details below:

I am not an attorney nor have I ever studied the Law, but according to the court documents listed here (Once you log in you can search LG Technologies and the case info will come up) it would appear as though LeadPoint has also filed a cross complaint against Shin on 9/11/09. The details of this complaint are unknown, but I will keep you posted as the case proceeds and try to provide details when they are available.

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It’s the same old story no matter what vertical you work in. The biggest reason for failed attempts at integrating internet leads is NOT the quality of the leads.It is the lack of proper lead management.

This is obviously not something new for most readers of this blog and could possibly be considered the biggest topic on this blog. The issue continues to arise in posts because I continually come across companies that fail, waste thousands of dollars and then eventually go out of business. The issue with lead management is that it is composed of a number of different pieces and without all the pieces in place you are losing money.

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A little over a two years ago – by only a few weeks mind you – SmartHippo announced their beta launch to the world. Since that launch SmartHippo as continued to grow and evolve into a very interesting platform for consumers looking for the lowest rates. The combination of consumer feedback, ratings and bank posted interest rates gives an interesting spin on the evolution of transparency in the industry. The mortgage crisis hasn’t been nice for many start ups in the industry but SmartHippo continues to make big strides in their continued evolution.

Today they announced two very big developments. 1. The naming of former LendingTree General Manager, Lori Collins as their new CEO. 2. The expansion into the Spanish market with launch of HipoListo.es.

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QuinStreet has been on the website purchasing prowl for a over a year now picking up mortgage, BtoB and now insurance related sites. The most recent acquisition was announced Friday and included the purchase of the domain insure.com and its content for $16m.

That is right $16m.

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The lead generation space can be compared to the wild wild west of advertising. The barriers to entry for lead providers are fairly low and becoming lower and lower every year. Just about anyone can start a lead gen company by aggregating the leads and reselling them or by actually generating the leads themselves. The demand for leads are high and either the lack of quality or the inability to close the leads keeps this demand for new sources on the rise.

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This is a great addition for LeadPoint, who seems to be on the rebound and seeing positive growth. Take a look at the press release below.

LOS ANGELES, CA — 09/29/09 — LeadPoint (http://www.leadpoint.com), the world’s first and largest online lead exchange, today announced that Raj Parekh has joined the company as Vice President of Strategic Partnerships. In this role Parekh, who has over 10 years of business development experience with customers and vendors, will be responsible for growing LeadPoint’s top accounts within its data and voice lead products and evangelizing the value and efficiency of purchasing leads through LeadPoint’s exchange.

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Before I get to the Day 2 recap, I gotta show you a few pics of the networking event on Day 1. It was hands down the best networking event at a conference that I have attended. Aside from the open bar and excellent appetizers, the event was accompanied by an excellent ’80′s cover band. They rocked the event out and put on a great show! Classic!

Here are a couple of photos from the iPhone. One includes my Business Development manager at Geary Interactive. lol

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I wrote and deleted the beginning of this post twice already, so this time I am going to get straight to the point.

The mortgage industry, in my opinion, is probably the most capable vertical for working internet leads. They have some of the most experienced lead buyers, the best Lead Management Systems and have lived through the ups and downs of lead quality.

The mortgage boom created a vacuum of technological developments that surrounded the lead buying process. Many of the most mature and developed lead buying services evolved out of mortgage industry and are now venturing into other verticals. This is great news for those verticals they are moving into. The trial and error, the R&D funded by the mortgage boom and the experience of working millions of leads is now available to these other verticals. The learning curve has been shortened for you!

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Big news today.

As reported early LendingTree has dropped the lawsuit against Mortech. The lawsuit claimed that Mortech broke the confidentiality agreement between the two companies and infringed on their contract by working with Google on their new mortgage rate tables. This lawsuit leaked news that Google is currently working on a U.S. based mortgage rate table that could possibly open the door into the lead generation industry for Google.

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CHARLOTTE, N.C.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–LendingTree, LLC and Mortech, Inc. have resolved their lawsuit to the mutual satisfaction of both parties, and the lawsuit has been dismissed.

More details to come.

I have come across a few sites that covered the recent white paper by Pontiflex wrong and I need to get it off my chest. First, let me tell you a little bit about the white paper. Pontiflex took a years worth of data from over 700 publishers and multiple verticals with the goal to determine the average costs per lead for each vertical. If you ask me, I think this is pretty interesting information, but their was a level of clarity that was left out of the white paper that caused a little bit of confusion.

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Just wanted to send a quick reminder to lead generation, LMS and third party services companies related to the lead generation industry that you only have 5 days to submit your company information to the new LeadCritic Business Directory. The submission form will be removed from the site until another enrollment period is scheduled later this year, so don’t wait!

Have a good weekend!

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PerformLine, Inc., a next generation online marketing company and developer of campaign verification solutions for both brand and direct response marketers, has named David Jakubowski to the Board of Directors.

New York, NY (PRWEB) September 8, 2009 — PerformLine, creator of the first real-time end-to-end campaign verification platform that provides advertisers with full transparency into where and how their ad creative is appearing on otherwise blind ad networks, today announced the appointment of David Jakubowski to its Board of Directors. Jakubowski joins Chris Fralic of First Round Capital, Stuart Larkins of Twin Capital and Alex Baydin, CEO and Founder of PerformLine.

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I don’t have the privilege of attending the LendingTree Summits, but this year I was able to follow the daily happenings via good’ol Twitter! So here is a ValleyWag type twitter summation of what went down at this years event in Las Vegas courtesy of these twitterers:

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Its been long over due, but now is better then never.

I get a number of emails asking about where to buy leads or what services are good and which are not. I will continue to facilitate those questions, however I am going to make a little easier for many of you. I am finally going to build out a business directory. Just about any company that works within the lead generation industry is welcome to submit their company info to the directory. This will include lead companies in the mortgage, debt and EDU verticals to start. It will also include lead management companies, affiliate networks, emailers, paid search management companies, etc. If you don’t fit into any of those categories, go ahead and submit your info anyway. I do, however, want to keep the lead companies to the 3 verticals I mentioned to start.

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Over a year ago Google began testing a mortgage rate search within their Merchant Search platform in the UK. Not much more then a few blog post here and there discussed the new search tool. Most couldn’t imagine it going much further then just a simple test and the fact that it was circled around generating calls, not specifically data leads, added to the passive concern of so many.

With the new LendingTree suit against Mortech and the revelation of Google’s continued interest in breaking into the mortgage lead generation industry it has proven that the UK test was not performed on a whim and they did have long term intentions. What can be debated is what those intentions truly are. I think to do this we have take a look at more then simply the disheveled mortgage lead generation industry, but the online marketing industry as a whole.

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It was all over the Internet today that LendingTree has filed a lawsuit against service provider and 2008 “Innovator of the Year” , Mortech. The suit accuses Mortech of contract infringement and breaking their confidentiality agreement.

About two years ago LendingTree partnered with Mortech and recently became aware of their communications and possible partnership with the Google, whom over the past year has been quietly figuring out the real estate and mortgage lead generation industry. This suit may have inadvertently leaked the launch of a Google’s rate table application and lead generation process. This project has been rumored for a while and is an interesting topic on its own, but clearly is a threat to the mortgage lead gen world and more specifically LendingTree. This suit, while directed at Mortech, could be a foot in the door for LT to stall the launch of the new Google service. The reality is that there are a number of Mortech like companies and the actual pricing engine technology is not proprietary to just Mortech. If LendingTree can somehow prove that Mortech leaked information about LendingTree developments and future plans or have possibly used their knowledge learned from LendingTree to benefit Google, they may be able to throw a wrench into Google’s plans indefinitely.

“We will vigorously protect our contractual rights, our company, our customers and our clients in this matter,” CEO Doug Lebda said in a statement.

Regardless of the motives, LT seems to think they have a strong enough case to take this past the initial, “please, stop doing that” requests.

So what do you think? Is this all to disrupt Google’s plan to enter into the lead gen business or is this only a Mortech and LendingTree contract infringement case and that’s it?

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I am currently on the plane flying back from the first LeadsCon East event, third ever LeadsCon, and was reflecting back on the show a bit. Overall, great show and I am very happy I attended the event. I was initially planning on skipping the event, only because it was a single day event and having to fly across the country for one day wasn’t something I was interested in, BUT, I am glad I did. For a lead gen guy its a must attend event. Why? Because it is custom made for you. The content and the contacts you will be introduced to are worth the time and money, ten fold.

I do wish it was a two day event, however understand it was Jay’s first go at hosting an event in NYC. Nonetheless it was great seeing and meeting you all and look forward to the next time!

Later this week I will be going through my notes and recapping some of the note worthy topics from LeadsCon, so keep an eye out.

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Live blogging at LeadsCon:

Crossing the Chasm: The uprecedented Partnership between a lead gen company and one of the worlds premier brands.

During the “American Idol” finale on May 20, T-Mobile ran a campaign unlike any other they have before. Not only did the company bring back Catherine Zeta-Jones, but as part of their “mobile makeover,” they suggested viewers visit an independent third party site. It was the first time the carrier has recommended a third-party website in their campaigns, let alone one that is completely independent, i.e., the Redwood City based online lead generation startup, BillShrink.

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