M&A firm advises digital marketing solutions provider in its sale to services and tech consultancy
NEW YORK – M&A advisory firm AdMedia Partners, Inc. is pleased to announce that it acted as financial advisor to Minneapolis-based Olson, an integrated marketing technology and digital solutions provider, in its acquisition by ICF International (NASDAQ:ICFI), a leading provider of consulting services and technology solutions to government and commercial clients. ICF purchased Olson for $295 million in cash from private equity firm KRG Capital Partners and other minority shareholders.
“Together, ICF and Olson will guide clients through this new digital revolution across all markets, offering the ability to efficiently and effectively reach out to customers and stakeholders.”
Bruce Rogers, Managing Director and Co-Founder of KRG, said, “AdMedia did a great job on this transaction-they identified ICF as a potential buyer for Olson, and handled the negotiations with ICF to bring the deal to a successful closing.”
“AdMedia has incredible knowledge of the digital marketing space, and their experience and depth of their team was critical in making this a successful transaction,” said John Partilla, Olson’s CEO.
Olson provides digital marketing solutions around customer engagement and branding and is widely recognized for its innovative strategic advisory work, its software-driven customer loyalty programs and its analytics-based marketing.
This acquisition strengthens and expands ICF’s digital marketing capabilities, enabling clients to transform the way they engage with customers and stakeholders. Combined with ICF’s existing digital technology implementation capabilities, Olson will help drive multi-channel marketing initiatives across web, mobile, email, social, print, broadcast and off-premise platforms. Olson’s diversified roster of marquee clients spans a broad range of industry categories, including health, energy and transportation, complementing ICF’s work in those areas, in addition to its significant consumer/retail presence.
The professional services landscape has changed dramatically in the past few years, reflecting rapid growth in the use of digital services by consumers, businesses and governments. In recognition of this trend ICF acquired Ironworks (2011), CITYTECH (2014) and Mostra (2014) to buttress its legacy capabilities. These capabilities combined with Olson’s have positioned ICF as a full-service digital marketing solutions provider that will give commercial and government clients the opportunity to reach their most important audiences easily, directly and cost effectively.
“Our clients are increasingly using mobile platforms, social media and the web for interacting with their customers and stakeholders. Utility companies are using these channels to increase energy efficiency, healthcare companies to influence consumer choices, transportation companies for transactions and governments for stakeholder engagement. A deep and sophisticated understanding of consumer behavior combined with the use of digital technologies will be increasingly key to helping ICF’s clients implement solutions in the future,” said ICF International Chairman and CEO Sudhakar Kesavan. “Together, ICF and Olson will guide clients through this new digital revolution across all markets, offering the ability to efficiently and effectively reach out to customers and stakeholders.”
“We are thrilled to be joining ICF, which we see as an excellent platform to drive our future growth, domestically, internationally and across client categories,” said John Partilla. “Our organization will be a part of the digital services business, which will be an important driver of the company’s overall revenue growth. As part of ICF, we will be positioned to leverage the strengths we have built since our founding 22 years ago, to benefit our current clients and expand our reach by providing the combination of brand experience, technology and commerce, for which there is strong demand.”
As a result of the acquisition, 545 professionals will join ICF. The acquisition also includes digital assets and intellectual property including Olson’s Tally®, a CRM-driven loyalty platform that enables clients to drive rewards and marketing programs; Social Media Accelerator, a rich proprietary fact base and planning tool to plan and manage social media investment; and Brand Anthropology™, a research-based tool to quantitatively segment markets and build brands.
About AdMedia Partners
Founded in 1990, AdMedia is a leading M&A advisory firm serving the marketing services, advertising, marketing technology, media and information sectors. AdMedia has completed over 180 transactions for clients valued in excess of $8 billion since 1999. For more information, visit www.admediapartners.com.
