• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, January 6, 2016

Stagwell Group, an investment group founded by former WPP and Microsoft exec Mark Penn has acquired a majority stake in New York-based digital agency Code and Theory. The agency's clients include Burger King, Maybelline, Dr. Pepper and Vogue.  

Of the acquisition, Penn said the agency’s digital focus "is something that’s going to be mission-critical for major products. It’s a high growth agency with great founders, exhibiting a great combination of creativity and engineering.” 

Code and Theory is said to have annual revenue of $50 million. Terms of the deal, as usual, were not disclosed.  

Of the acquisition and its future plans to acquire more in the digital marketing space, Penn added, “You’re going to see more purely digital acquisitions and this is the first of a line of them.” Recently, Stagwell Group acquired public relations firm SKDKnickerbocker and National Research Group, a Nielsen company.