NEW YORK, Nov. 8, 2018 — The 614 Group announced today that it had been selected by Interpublic Group (NYSE: IPG) earlier this year as a due diligence advisor on the holding company’s acquisition of Acxiom Marketing Solutions (AMS), now known as Acxiom LLC.
IPG completed its acquisition of Acxiom on October 1, 2018, and Acxiom now operates as a stand-alone company within IPG. The consulting assignment was noteworthy for its complexity in unlocking the potential of bringing together IPG’s media, creative, marketing services and analytics capabilities with Acxiom’s unrivalled expertise in identity, data, integrations and data stewardship, all for the benefit of marketers and clients.
“The 614 Group supported us through a broad set of business and operational questions. We fully appreciated the team’s advice and guidance in this major effort for our business.”
—Philippe Krakowsky, EVP, CSO of Interpublic and CEO and Chairman of IPG Mediabrands
“We chose The 614 Group for this assignment based on its expertise in digital advertising infrastructure,” said Saqib Mausoof, Chief Data Strategist at IPG Mediabrands. “Their knowledge of the subject matter and relationships with our teams helped them stand out as a key partner that could help us through the intricacies of this key acquisition.”
Rob Rasko, CEO and Founder of The 614 Group, said, “We were honored to be called on for this assignment, and we loved working on such a groundbreaking transaction that called on all the capabilities of The 614 Group in order to deliver for IPG. The effort was thrilling and intellectually challenging. I very much look forward to a future with services organizations who can be as bold as the IPG team chose to be in executing a forward-facing deal such as this.”
To add additional context, with the announcement that AMS was available for acquisition in March 2018, executives at IPG asked The 614 Group to help uncover the various opportunities of the transaction and how the acquisition could contribute to the future success of its clients.
The announcement was made at The Consumer & Brand Digital Safety Summit, where The 614 Group brought together 200 brand marketers, agency leaders, publishers, and top players in ad tech for provocative keynotes, informative panels and invaluable networking.