NEW YORK: Another start-up company is in the market for PR firms, planning to spend as much as dollars 200 million to build an integrated marketing communications operation.
NEW YORK: Another start-up company is in the market for PR firms,
planning to spend as much as dollars 200 million to build an integrated
marketing communications operation.
FutureSource has set up offices in New York and Toronto, and is planning
a series of PR, advertising and market research firm acquisitions. The
company has an equity investment in the new venture of between dollars
50 and dollars 60 million and could combine that with debt to spend
between dollars 100 million and dollars 200 million on acquisitions,
according to Lee Mitchell, a partner with Thoma Cressey Equity Partners,
the Chicago private equity firm bankrolling FutureSource.
The new company is eyeing PR firms with dollars 10 million in revenues
or higher, an area Mitchell called ’the middle market.’ The company is
likely to strike quickly: ’Hopefully, we’ll have an announcement in the
next few months. The company is out looking for partners as we
speak.’
Mitchell preferred to describe any potential acquisitions as ’partners’
because existing managers will be asked to stay on and grow their
businesses under the FutureSource label.
The company has already hired Michel Frappier, a former Canadian
advertising executive, to lead the new venture. Frappier worked for ad
shops J. Walter Thompson and Foster/McCann-Erickson Advertising of
Canada.
FutureSource’s plans are similar to those of Lighthouse Holdings, which
recently spent a reported dollars 65 million to buy Financial Dynamics,
a British strategic communications company (PRWeek, August 9).
