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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.
WPP reported a 5.5 percent decline in Q1 PR revenues to $292M as its BCW and Hill & Knowlton units suffered the loss of Pfizer assignments, and cutbacks in client spending due to the economic uncertainty.
Interpublic CEO Philippe Krakowsky said the firm is off to a “solid start to the year” as its flat $2.2B net revenues are in line with 2024 financial targets.
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Omnicom CEO John Wren reports Q1 revenues jumped 5.4 percent to $3.6M, powered by a solid 7.0 percent rise in its advertising & media segment.
Public Policy Holding Company registered 24.1 percent growth to a record $135M during the past year, which included the results of the March 1 acquisition of Multistate Assocs.
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