M&A firm advises the global leader in online content and community moderation services in acquisition by top global digital performance media company
NEW YORK – M&A firm AdMedia Partners announced that it acted as exclusive financial advisor to ICUC Moderation Services, a leader in social media management, online content and community moderation services, in its acquisition by Aegis Media’s iProspect, a leading global digital performance agency.
A leader in social media intelligence and moderation services, ICUC provides people-powered, strategic direction to some of the world’s most socially engaged brands including Chevron, Intel, Molson, Scotiabank and Starbucks. ICUC’s multi-lingual content and community specialists offer clients guidance and moderation of social media conversations, user-generated content, chat and live events across the globe.
“This deal reflects the strong interest in building social media marketing capabilities by a broad array of marketing and advertising firms,” said Frank Connolly, Managing Director at AdMedia. “That robust buyer demand cuts across the entire spectrum of technology and services offerings. We expect to see more of these types of deals as the importance of social media in a complete set of marketing tools continues to grow.”
iProspect, the leader in global digital performance media, will leverage ICUC’s community management platform and social media expertise to continue enhancing iProspect’s social media offerings. With more than 800 employees in 29 countries, and 39 offices worldwide, iProspect is uniquely positioned to deliver ‘Digital Performance on a Global Scale’ for its clients, a charter that will be further strengthened with this strategic social media acquisition.
This transaction is the latest in a string of significant deals in the social media space. To capture this rapidly evolving marketing sector, AdMedia has created an informative summary entitled Recent Social Media Marketing Acquisitions.
About AdMedia Partners
AdMedia Partners is a leading provider of middle market mergers and acquisition advisory services to digital and traditional media, marketing and information businesses. Founded in 1990 and located in New York City, the firm has completed over 180 transactions worth over $8 billion since 1999. For more information about AdMedia Partners, please visit www.admediapartners.com.
Select recent transactions completed by AdMedia Partners include representing the following firms:
LEVEL Studios, a leading digital marketing and technology services agency, in its acquisition by Rosetta, the largest independent interactive agency in the US and a portfolio company of Lindsay Goldberg.
Brulant, one of the largest independent interactive marketing agencies, in its acquisition by Rosetta, a portfolio company of Lindsay Goldberg.
Cheil Worldwide in its acquisition of The Barbarian Group, an award winning digital creative and marketing company.
iCrossing Inc., a global digital marketing company, in its acquisition of Web development agency Proxicom, Inc.
Range Online Media, a search marketing and online media agency, in its acquisition by iProspect, a subsidiary of Aegis Group plc.
New Media Strategies, a leading interactive word of mouth marketing agency, in its acquisition by Meredith Corporation.
i33 communications LLC, a digital design, development and marketing agency, in its acquisition by 360i, a subsidiary of Innovation Interactive LLC.
Triad Digital Media, LLC, an online media and advertising services company, in its significant growth capital investment from H.I.G. Ventures, LLC.
Marketing Direct, Inc., a leading provider of integrated marketing services to the healthcare industry, in its acquisition by KBM Group, a Wunderman company and member of WPP.
Barefoot, a premier creative and interactive advertising agency, in its acquisition by Omnicom’s BBDO Worldwide.
Media Storm, a leading media buying and planning agency, in its acquisition by Shamrock.
About Aegis Media North America
Aegis Media, part of the Aegis Group plc, has unified some of the world’s leading marketing and media services brands to help create measurable competitive advantage for clients in the converging media and communications world. Globally, our group is built around five network brands including Carat and Vizeum (both delivering full service Communications Planning and Media Buying), Isobar (Creative and Communications), iProspect (Performance and Search Marketing) and Posterscope (Out-of-home Planning and Buying).
In North America the group is enhanced by regional best-in-class specialists including Team Epic (Sports Lifestyle and Experiential Marketing) and Copernicus (Marketing Consulting).
About iProspect
iProspect is a leading global digital performance agency. The company helps many of the world’s most successful brands maximize their online marketing ROI through research, paid search, social media strategy, search engine optimization, display media, comparison shopping engines, conversion optimization, mobile marketing and attribution modeling and management, and other related services. The agency, which is part of Aegis Media, has received numerous industry awards including: The 2010 ClickZ Connected Marketing Award for Best Use of Search Engine Marketing; The 2009 Search Engine Strategies Award for Best Social Media Marketing Campaign; The 2009 Search Engine Strategies Award for Best Use of Local Search. With offices in Boston, New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Dallas-Fort Worth, and around the globe, iProspect can be contacted at 1-800-522-1152, or by visiting http://www.iprospect.com.
About ICUC Moderation Services Inc
ICUC Moderation Services Inc. was founded in Winnipeg in 2002 and is the global leader in content and community moderation services, powered by real people. We manage, moderate and monitor millions of social media conversations, photographs and videos and work inside some of the largest online communities in the world.
