By Greg Hazley
Next Fifteen Communications Group, parent to firms like M Booth, Bite Communications and Text 100, has acquired San Francisco-based The Blueshirt Group, an IR firm founded in 1999 by Morgen-Walke Associates alumni.
The deal is estimated to be $11M, including $3M in cash on completion of the transaction and earn-out payments over four years estimated to total $8M.
Blueshirt, which caters mostly to technology clients, also has a New York operation.
Next Fifteen said the deal, which includes an 85% stake, will provide opportunities for “cross referrals” in the U.S. and open up a new revenue stream.
Blueshirt revenue for the year ended Sept. 30 was $5.3M with adjusted profit pegged about $1M.
NF has been on an acquisition tear over the past year, gobbling up M Booth & Associates, the Asian PR business Upstream Marketing and Communications, Type3, a digital firm combined with Context Analytics to form Beyond, and it increased its stake in D.C. shop 463 Communications to 76%.
NF on Sept. 1 acquired OneXeno, a small Hong Kong digital marketing agency that’s been folded into Bite Communications.
Chairman Will Whitehorn said the company “continues to explore organic growth opportunities supported by selective acquisitions of specialist agencies in growth sector.”
Revenue Up 11%
Next Fifteen reported today an 11 percent rise in revenue for the end of its fiscal year July 31 to £72.3M ($113.6M). Profit rose to £3.7M ($5.8M), up from £2.3M ($3.6M) for the previous year.
M Booth, the anchor in NF’s push to build a global consumer PR agency, contributed $11.5M to revenue and $1.7M to profit before tax from Aug. 3, 2009 to the end of the fiscal year July 31, 2010, NF said.
“The Group is experiencing an improvement in trading conditions, particularly in North America and Asia but it will continue to manage the business in a way that reflects the general uncertainty that surrounds the pace of economic recovery,” said Whitehorn. “That said, in the first two months of the current financial year, the Group has seen good momentum and the board remains optimistic about the prospects for the year.”
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