Sorrell’s S4 Capital Announces MediaMonks And Firewood Merger
As predicted by B&T earlier today, Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has acquired Silicon Valley marketing firm Firewood to be integrated into S4’s MediaMonks division to bolster offerings in paid search, display and video campaigns.
It is hoped the acquisition of the full-service agency will take the S4’s “faster, better, cheaper” model to the next level, as the company pushes to become a purely digital, first-party data-driven, programmatic offer for clients worldwide, with a unitary business model.
Commenting on the acquisition, which is reported to have cost S4 $US150 million ($222.1 million), company executive chairman Sir Martin Sorrell said: “This merger is a further step in creating a new era communications services leader.”
“Firewood has an enviable client list comprising many of Silicon Valley’s finest; and we are delighted to welcome Juan, Lanya and their colleagues to the S4Capital family.
“We will now have over 1,800 professionals in 23 countries, with over 500 in each of two nodes, one in Silicon Valley and one in Amsterdam.”
Firewood’s clients include Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce and VMware.
Now with seven offices in four countries and 300+ employees, Firewood touts its “non-agency mindset”, instead opting towards an “embedded” model of client partnership.
MediaMonks founding monk and COO Wesley ter Haar, said: “Firewood’s “embedded” approach will allow us to build deeper and broader relationships with our clients, helping us work in a more flexible, collaborative and integrated way.”
Firewood founder and CEO Juan Zambrano added: “We came from the client world and had a very different and non-agency mindset. From day one, we created an integrated and disruptive model built on transparency and collaboration that supported becoming extensions of our clients and something that other agencies weren’t doing. We are delighted to be teaming up with MediaMonks and joining the S4Capital platform. We believe this is an exciting next step for our clients and colleagues and we look forward to continued growth and success.”
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