• by Steve McClellan , January 5, 2016

The Stagwell Group, formed by Mark Penn last year, has acquired a majority stake in the New York City-based creative digital agency Code and Theory, which also has offices in Atlanta, London, San Francisco, and Manila, the Philippines.

Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The agency was founded in 2001 by Dan Gardner and Brandon Ralph, who will continue to run the agency as a stand-alone entity within Stagwell (with minority ownership stakes) along with their current management team.

The agency, which has over 300 staffers, has worked for blue chip clients such as Bloomberg, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, Vogue and Mashable, Maybelline New York and Burger King.

“Digital is a critical and core part of our strategy,” said Penn, who is managing partner and president of Stagwell. “Under Dan and Brandon’s leadership, we are excited about Code and Theory’s future as part of our digital marketing services portfolio of companies.”

This is Stagwell’s third acquisition in the marketing services industry, joining strategic communications firm SKDKnickerbocker and entertainment research firm National Research Group (NRG), the latter previously owned by Nielsen. Last month Penn's nephew Jon Penn, was named CEO of NRG. 

Mark Penn, a well-known PR and marketing veteran, announced the formation of Stagwell last June, indicating at the time that the new firm had raised $250 million in capital to potentially make up to $750 million in acquisitions. 

This story has been updated to correct the title of Jon Penn. An earlier version incorrectly reported he was CEO of Stagwell.