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China's Blue Focus Intelligent Communications Group is merging its international units into Legacy Acquisition Corp., a Big Board-listed $300M special purpose acquisition company.
Legacy will be recast as Blue Impact and headquartered in Mountain View, CA. BFICG will own a 44 percent stake in the new entity.
BI will include Canada's Vision 7 (Citizen Relations, Cossette Communications, The Camps Collective), San Francisco's Fuse Project (product design/branding), UK's We Are Social (social media/digital offerings), Hong Kong's Metta (marketing) and Shanghai's Madhouse (mobile-focused paid media/performance platform).
Brett Marchand, CEO of Vision 7 and marketing veteran of Procter & Gamble, Campbell Soup and Molson Coors, will helm BI. Holly Zheng, president of BFICG's international business sector, will be chairwoman.
Edwin Rigaud, Legacy CEO and Procter & Gamble alum, said his team screened 370 opportunities before partnering with Blue Focus.
He said BI is well-positioned to capitalize on the confluence of "the rise of mobile, digital and social communications, the advance of data-driven media and marketing, plus the continued emergence of highly nimble and client-focused talent."
BI will have more than 2,500 employees. Digital marketing activity will account for more than 60 percent of its $400M revenue base.
The transaction will be completed by the end of the year.
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