By Greg Hazley
MDC Partners, the ad and PR holding company that has been on an acquisition tear, has picked up a majority stake in Kwittken & Company, the four-year-old New York firm headed by former Euro RSCG Magnet chief Aaron Kwittken and his former Euro colleague Jason Schlossberg.
The stake in K&C, which had revenue of $3M in '09 but has grown this year, will cost MDC from $10M-$15M and lands the firm within its Kirshenbaum Bond Senecal agency unit, which also includes the PR division Lime PR and Promotion.
Schlossberg told O'Dwyer's that the firm's leadership had a goal of growing the boutique shop into a mid-range agency in size, but decided not to pursue such growth by acquiring other agencies. K&C met with the major holding companies but didn't see a fit. “We would have been cogs in their machines,” he said, describing the firm's role under KBS and within MDC as more integrated.
Schlossberg said the power struggle over digital and social media between ad and PR units should lead to more integrated approaches, not further entrenchment by the two disciplines.
“We're going to create integrated teams and cater to a more integrated approach [as part of KBS],” he said.
K&C's staff of about 22 is included in the acquisition deal.
MDC CEO Miles Nidal told this website in April that his company was prepared to make a splash in the PR sector and he has followed through.
MDC acquired financial PR specialist Sloane & Company in April. A month later, it added Allison & Partners. It has also added experiential marketing shop Relevant and analytics firm Integrated Media Solutions in the last few months.
MDC's 2009 revenues were $545M.
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