BOSTON: PAN Communications has acquired San Francisco-based Vantage PR, expanding its national presence by bringing on Vantage’s 35 staffers in four offices.
The combination will boost PAN’s staff to more than 100 employees with $13.5 million in revenue. Vantage staffers in Boston will move to PAN’s headquarters there. The firm plans to keep all offices open and build out its presence in New York over the next year.
"There will be absolutely no layoffs," said Philip Nardone, PAN founder and president. "Actually, we are hiring in each office as we head into 2016, and we feel like we have great growth opportunity within each of our regions across the US."
Vantage PR founder Ilene Adler will stay on as chief strategist, focused on acquisition integration, growing PAN’s presence in Silicon Valley, and developing its global partner strategy.
Rob Adler, SVP at Vantage, will serve as EVP and MD, overseeing operations in San Francisco and Orlando. Both will report to Nardone and work closely with the PAN executive management team.
"PAN and Vantage have a team of very talented, passionate employees and have been recognized locally and nationally for their culture and talent development programs," Nardone said. "These are all elements that were important to me as we selected Vantage PR. They reminded me of PAN, and the acquisition of Vantage is a perfect fit."
The firms said the combination will cause minimal, if any, client conflict. Both agencies are focused on technology, healthcare, and consumer technology sectors.
Vantage will drop its brand on April 1, 2016. Until then, the unit will be known at Vantage PR, a PAN Communications Company.
"We’ve had aggressive expansion plans in place for the last couple of years coming on the heels of a 30% revenue increase in 2014 and 25% in 2015," Nardone added. "We strategically decided that a national presence was a must in order to continue with our agency’s growth plans."
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