The Shipyard disclosed plans to acquire Fahlgren Mortine for an undisclosed price. Both agencies are based in Columbus, Ohio.  

Fahlgren Mortine was founded in 1962 as a PR agency and has expanded its offering to include design, customer experience and other services. 

Under The Shipyard, led by CEO Rick Milenthal, the agency will maintain the Fahlgren Mortine brand and will have access to additional services including media buying, creative, and data and analytics. 

Fahlgren Mortine leadership will remain in place with CEO Neil Mortine, and Marty McDonald, who was named president in 2022.  

Mortine will also be named vice chairman for The Shipyard and Christine Turner will continue as president of Turner, a subsidiary of Fahlgren Mortine since 2014. Turner focuses on integrated communications for travel, tourism and active lifestyle brands with offices in New York City, Denver and Chicago. 

The combined company will have a team of nearly 400 across 10 U.S. offices with both B2C and B2B industry expertise. 

The seller is Eastport Holdings, which acquired the firm in 2018. The transaction is expected to close at the end of April. 

The transaction follows a nearly $60 million investment in The Shipyard by Alaris Equity Partners USA that the latter announced last August.