LOS ANGELES: Imre has acquired Los Angeles-based JMPR.
JMPR will retain its brand as an Imre division. JMPR founder and CEO Joseph Molina and his leadership team will be integrated into Imre’s consumer group, said Imre founder and CEO Dave Imre. The deal closed on Sunday.
Imre is adding JMPR’s staff of 13 to its West Coast operations, doubling the size of the firm’s Los Angeles office. Imre’s total staff size will increase to 124 across the combined company. No layoffs are expected as a result of the deal. The combination will create a firm with more than $19 million in 2017 revenue.
"This is only the second acquisition we have done in our 25 years," said Imre. In 2007, his firm acquired MDV Communications, a Beltway online marketing firm.
Imre also has offices in New York City and Baltimore, and its operations include the Imre Health brand alongside its consumer practice. JMPR specializes in the luxury, lifestyle, and transportation industries and works with clients including Infiniti, Airstream, and Bugatti.
Imre said there are no client conflicts as a result of the deal, and that his firm "hopes to bring on" all of JMPR’s clients. In terms of timing, he said that the acquisition "was the right thing to do and now was the time to do it."
Imre, a certified LGBTQ-owned company, is on pace to earn more than $20 million in global fee revenue in 2018. In 2017, Imre saw $16.3 million in global revenue, up 8% from the prior year. JMPR earned $2.9 million in 2017, an increase of 9% from 2016.
The acquisition follows a spate of small and mid-size mergers and acquisitions that have taken place since the start of the year. Burson Cohn & Wolfe, itself the product of the February combination of Burson-Marsteller and Cohn & Wolfe, acquired creative shop HZ, which saw nearly $24 million in revenue last year. That same month, Montreal-based holding and management company Avenir Global acquired Padilla; FleishmanHillard combined its Boston office with that of subsidiary LPP; Clarity PR gained a foothold in the Bay Area by acquiring DRSmedia; and travel shop MMGY Global bought Grifco and its sister agency, Ophir.
Experts told PRWeek that there are three factors driving the trend: agencies trying to build scale, the booming economy, and the encroaching retirement age of agency leaders.
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