Commentary

Brandtech Group Acquires Digital Media Agency Jellyfish

The Brandtech Group  has acquired digital media agency Jellyfish for an undisclosed amount. 

Neogitaions began last year when Brandtech received an exclusive window in which to come to an agreement.  

Jellyfish was founded in 2005 by Rob Pierre and now has more than 2,000 employees across 38 offices worldwide. 

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With the deal, Pierre will move to the newly-created Jellyfish role of Chair and, together with Brandtech Group founder and CEO David Jones will focus on M&A to build out and scale Jellyfish’s global footprint as well as other M&A opportunities for the group. 

Pierre will also lead platform relationships, and continuing to nurture the Jellyfish culture.  

Nick Emery, the former Mindshare CEO and founding partner and CEO of Brandtech Media, will become CEO of Jellyfish, responsible for its day-to-day operation. A new Jellyfish board will be chaired by Emery and include Pierre and Jones. Additional board members include Emery, Brandtech Group partner Emma Cookson, Vice Chair and Brandtech Media CFO Dawn Dickie, Group General Counsel Betty Louie, Jellyfish CFO Chris Lee, and Jellyfish COO Ed Ball.   

French finance and data group Fimalac acquired a majority stake in Jellyfish in November 2019. It integrated data specialist Tradelab into Jellyfish, extending its global footprint and creating a new kind of global business partner. As part of this transaction, Fimalac becomes one of the largest shareholders in The Brandtech Group, and Webedia President and Jellyfish Chairman, Véronique Morali, and Fimalac Directeur Général Délégué, Thomas Piquemal, will join The Brandtech Group’s board. 

With the deal, Brandtech, which Jones formed in 2015, now has more than $1 billion in annualized revenue and more than 7.000 employees. It works with about half of the world’s top 100 advertisers. Clients include Google, Netflix and Uber. It is certified by numerous platforms like Amazon, Google, Salesforce and others. 

This is the Group’s ninth acquisition and follows a deal last July to acquire Acorn-i, the global AI-driven e-commerce SaaS platform.  

Jones stated: "Marketing gets ever more complicated and our clients come to us for one thing: to help simplify this very complex world. When I created the company we set out to be the best in the world at helping clients connect content, data and media using technology and bringing Jellyfish into the Group allows us to take this to the next level.” 

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