News

PALAZZO served as the exclusive financial advisor to Donut Digital, a creative-led performance marketing agency based in Manhattan Beach, California, on its sale to New Engen, a leading digital marketing agency.

Founded in 2021, Donut Digital has established a reputation as one of the most innovative and fastest growing performance agencies through a highly differentiated creative-centric approach and efficient in-house production capabilities. Donut Digital’s acquisition will allow New Engen to create a full-service content studio, meeting client needs across all stages of the customer journey, from short form video and user generated content, to premium CTV/OTT content.  

“We’re beyond thrilled to bring Donut Digital’s capabilities to New Engen as creative has always been one of the most important levers to drive brand growth,” said New Engen founder and CEO, Justin Hayashi. “Donut Digital’s unique ability to produce native, social-first content at high capacity for clients across numerous verticals will support New Engen in expanding our creative foundation. Together, we share a vision and are positioned to unlock even greater opportunities for our clients.”   

Co-founders of Donut Digital, Alice Woo, Ari Jessel, and Brian Kim, who led Honey’s marketing before its $4B acquisition by PayPal, started their agency to address the challenges they faced as brand leaders. Their path mirrors that of New Engen CEO Justin Hayashi, who helped e-commerce company Zulily reach $1B in revenue before founding his own agency.   

Donut Digital’s Alice Woo said, “We’re excited to join forces with New Engen. Our teams share a commitment to innovation and a deep understanding of what brands need today to succeed across digital platforms. This partnership allows us to continue delivering for our clients while expanding our capabilities with the media expertise and measurement talent that New Engen brings to the table.”   

Following recent acquisitions of Acorn Influence and LT Partners, the addition of Donut Digital to New Engen’s portfolio is another step in the company’s vision of building a premier digital marketing agency.  

PALAZZO served as exclusive financial advisor to True Independent Holdings, parent company of True Media, True Media Canada, Coegi, and RADaR, on its sale to Meet The People, the innovative alternative to the big advertising holding company model and a portfolio company of Innovatus Capital Partners. With more than 200 employees and offices in both the US and Canada, along with capabilities that include media planning and buying, a programmatic trading desk, and a data and analytics unit, TIH represents a significant addition to the growing MTP roster. With the completion of the deal, the agency and its subsidiaries will join VSA Partners, Public Label, Match Retail, Saltwater Collective and Swell Media as a full partner in the MTP agency group.

“Joining forces with TIH and its agencies is an important step in the evolution of Meet The People,” says MTP Founder and Group CEO, Tim Ringel. “It adds substantial scale, skill and technology access to our media offering representing our ambition of excellence for our clients, which will help all of our agency brands better serve our clients.”

Founded in 2005, True Media quickly built a reputation for strong strategically-based planning and aggressive client advocacy in media negotiations. Their forward thinking also helped them to stay ahead of the curve in performance media, leading to their launch of Coegi, a digital media and programmatic advertising agency, and RADaR, an ad performance data and analytics firm.

Now, as part of MTP, the TIH family of companies will anchor a robust offering of media services to MTP agencies while continuing to work with other independent agencies and clients across North America. MTP’s existing media agency Swell Media, will maintain their specialty in ecommerce and B2B under this new structure.

Founder and CEO of True Independent Holdings, Jack Miller, says, “This is an exciting time for all of us. Tim and the entire team at MTP have crafted an agency group that is both grounded in valuing the individual and focused on innovating the industry through independent agencies. It’s an approach that perfectly aligns with the ways we’ve always conducted business, and I’m eager to see what this new relationship will enable us to achieve.”

Under MTP’s innovative new organizational approach, all of the roster agencies can work closely together as a community in a single ownership structure, while retaining independence as a core strength to establish their own identity and culture. By combining entrepreneurially minded firms into one fully integrated platform, MTP is able to bring specialized services to clients, while providing fully integrated agency-of-record solutions to these brands at the same time.

“It’s an operating model that exceeds the expectations of clients in every way,” says Ringel. “It allows us to offer integrated thinking, better services, faster solutions, less friction and deep expertise, all in a collaborative and transparent manner. These are the things that make a real difference in the relationships between brands and their agencies.”

With the addition of TIH’s 200 plus employees, the combined operations will boast headcount of over 750 employees in both the U.S. and Canada. It continues MTP’s steep growth trajectory over the past few years, achieved with strategic and financial support from Innovatus Capital Partners LLC, the New York-based portfolio management firm.

“We’re thrilled to have TIH join the Meet The People agency group,” says Innovatus CEO and founding partner David Schiff. “Jack and his team have built some extraordinary companies, and we look forward to building something even more amazing out of these combined operations.”

“MTP has the kind of scale, focus and drive we were looking for,” adds Miller. “We’ve always been aggressive about business growth. Now we have an equally ambitious partner who can help us realize even greater potential.”

PALAZZO is pleased to announce the addition of Reuben Hendell as Senior Advisor, strengthening the firm's M&A and strategic advisory practices focused on building shareholder value for leading marketing and technology services companies.

Reuben has a successful track record working with independent and PE-backed businesses in the marketing and technology services sector to improve shareholder value by optimizing business and acquisition strategies, as well as implementing required operational improvements in all facets of the business. Reuben has led and built some of the world's most successful digital agencies including Digitas, MRM/McCann, GSI Commerce, and eBay Marketing. Recently, while at BlueAcorniCi Reuben led the effort with its private equity partner via a successful buy-and-build strategy to scale an ecommerce and marketing services powerhouse which later sold to Infosys.

"Reuben brings a wealth of industry knowledge and experience to the firm, mostly from the perspective of having sat in the seats of our clients and buyers." said founder Phil Palazzo. "The totality of his expertise and skills in strategy, corporate development, performance improvement, agency growth and execution will be a tremendous asset for our clients."

"I am excited to join PALAZZO and help support their continued effort to be the preeminent marketing and technology services M&A platform for middle market companies looking for their next stage of partnership and growth while helping them achieve premium value and the right partner."

Reuben earned an MBA from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and a BA from Colgate University where he continues to serve as a senior advisor to "Thought Into Action", Colgate's entrepreneurial academy.

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to Giant Machines, a leading software engineering and digital solution company based in New York City, on its sale to Deloitte. The Giant Machines business is focused on strategizing, designing and engineering innovative digital products, and will help bolster Deloitte Digital and Deloitte Engineering capabilities to offer clients a robust suite of services to deliver strategic and scaled engineering solutions.

Since its founding in 2015, Giant Machines has specialized in many aspects of product design and development, including market and user research, product strategy, prototyping, engineering and design, and product management. The team has developed large-scale, custom solutions for Fortune 500 companies across a wide array of industries, including climate tech, health care, public utilities and more. Giant Machines is also focused on shaping the future of engineering talent through inclusive and custom learning experiences — which will become part of Deloitte's existing, award-winning training programs.

"Today's organizations need to deliver on innovation and technology to keep pace with customer expectations and competitors. The Giant Machines product incubation and solutions services will scale our Deloitte Engineering and Deloitte Digital capabilities to help our clients accelerate product delivery and shape the next generation of innovation," said Tim Juravich, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP.

"We built Giant Machines into what it is today with a relentless focus on outcomes and by helping our clients to see a bigger picture," said Roy Yang, Giant Machines CEO. "It's that same philosophy that drew us to Deloitte. In joining Deloitte, I believe we can take our vision of creating tech that matters and advance it even further, providing greater opportunities for clients."

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to GUT, Cannes Lions 2023’s Independent Network of the Year, on its sale to Globant. This acquisition will shape a partnership that will boost Globant’s technology and creative offering, taking it to a new level, and support GUT’s expansion to new markets and industries while leading the inception of technology into advertising.

“Technology and creativity have never been more closely linked than they are today,” said Martin Migoya, Co-founder and CEO of Globant. “We always say that Globant is where innovation, design, and engineering meet scale, and we couldn’t be more excited to bring the world’s most creative marketing and communications company into the mix. With this acquisition, we will be able to offer a unique blend of top-notch technology and bold ideas to brands from the very beginning of the creative ideation process.”

“We are thrilled to enter into this next chapter of our expansive growth powered by such an entrepreneurial and innovative partner as Globant, who will help us rapidly achieve the scale we’ve always dreamed about,” said Anselmo Ramos, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT. “Our mission when we founded GUT was to be the most diverse, creative, and influential agency Network ever, so we know that this reinvention with Globant will only accelerate that goal to hopefully becoming our reality soon.”

The five-year-old network has employees across seven offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Toronto, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Amsterdam. It has also attracted over 60 clients globally, including AB InBev, Mercado Libre, Google, Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, and Tim Hortons.

This year, GUT was named Cannes Lions Independent Network of the Year after winning 35 Lions, including 3 Grand Prix, 8 Golds, 12 Silvers, and 12 Bronzes across its Network. GUT Buenos Aires was also named both Cannes Lions Agency of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year in 2023. And this fall, Adweek named GUT the Breakthrough Agency of the Year, as well as GUT Buenos Aires office as the International Agency of the Year.

GUT will remain operating as fully independent as it does today, and GUT’s leadership team will remain in place with a continued focus on building culture and driving growth. Both companies will work together identifying cross-selling opportunities and leveraging their unique skills to provide even more innovative solutions to their customers.

“Globant has been a trusted client for many years. We’ve done so many wonderful and successful things together as an agency and client, and now together, we know they will help us realize the dreams we’ve had since we were founded in 2018,” said Gaston Bigio, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT. “Ultimately, we’re excited to be part of the team that will propel us into the next phase of growth and success at GUT, and set us up for even more growth and success in the long term for our People and clients around the world.”

“GUT and Globant share a solid culture, endless passion for supporting their clients, and a strong commitment to bravery, creativity, and innovation”, said Martin Umaran, Co-Founder and Chief Corporate Development Officer of Globant. “In past years, Globant doubled-down on its inherent creative side of technology by adding marketing and advertising agencies such as Habitant, in Spain, Vertic, in Denmark, Ad_Bid, in Colombia, and KTBO, in Mexico. We have already merged these teams with Globant’s own Digital Marketing and Digital Sales Studios to create a new end-to-end Studio Network with an agency approach enhanced with AI and diverse and talented professionals. GUT will play a critical role in being part of this Network”, he added.

Both organizations are ranked among the top ten global organizations in their respective industries: Globant is the 8th strongest IT brand globally according to the latest Brand Finance report, and GUT is the most creative independent advertising network in the world according to Cannes 2023 Report – forming a powerful global creative tech company poised for even greater growth. Globant was also included by Fortune on its latest list of “100 Fastest-Growing Companies”, ranked first among peers in the Information Technology Services category and recognized for its revenue, profit and stock return over the last three years.

The new partnership will help Dualboot accelerate its investments in global delivery talent and execute strategic acquisitions​​​​​​​

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to Dualboot Partners, a leading provider of digital product design and software development services to start-ups and Fortune 500 companies, in securing an investment from Insignia Capital Group.

Dualboot leverages a fulsome set of software engineering capabilities delivered by 370+ team members across a unique, decentralized infrastructure of global support centers in Latin America and Eastern Europe. The company specializes in building and maintaining mission-critical solutions which are highly strategic to their clients’ businesses.

Dualboot’s delivery teams are led by senior, U.S.-based product directors and comprised of talented offshore technologists, bringing a strong mix of business savvy and robust technical expertise to each client engagement. This unique and highly efficient operating model has facilitated rapid scaling of the business and tremendous value creation for clients.​​​​​​​

Insignia’s investment will support Dualboot’s global delivery center expansion and will help the company execute strategic acquisitions to strengthen its portfolio of in-demand digital transformation capabilities and services.​​​​​​​

The acquisition of Ampush deepens Tinuiti’s social offering and adds Ampush’s integrated proprietary tech to connect and optimize social creative and data

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to Ampush, a leading growth marketing agency with a core focus across social platforms that provides end-to-end performance creative and customer acquisition capabilities, on its sale to Tinuiti, a portfolio company of New Mountain Capital. The acquisition of Ampush expands and complements Tinuiti’s already industry award-winning paid social capabilities, in addition to now providing clients access to distinctive end-to-end social, creative, and measurement capabilities that leverage data through industry-differentiated technology.

Founded in 2010, Ampush is based in New York City with nearly 90 employees, with an additional presence in San Francisco and remotely. Ampush partners with fast-growing e-commerce and subscription commerce brands including Instacart, Blenders Eyewear, and STARZ. Ampush quickly made a name for itself by catapulting digitally-native brands to new levels of profitable customer growth. The Ampush tech stack and social capabilities has proven the ability to use novel technologies and tactics to connect the right consumers with the right brands.

The acquisition brings Tinuiti clients:

• Performance Creative for Social: Agile creative production including access to graphic designers, videographers, UGC-content production, proprietary content sites, and influencer relationships to optimize messaging for growth.
• Customization throughout the funnel: Rigorous testing and optimization of the connection between "pre-click" ad creative and audiences, with "post-click" curated landing pages, checkout flows and personalized experiences.
• Analytics that unlock strategy: Proprietary tech that integrates across any data source and empowers teams to use client-specific insights and find otherwise invisible strategies to win. Unique and advantageous solutions to build an edge in marketing.

Zach Morrison, CEO at Tinuiti, said: "With Tinuiti's acquisition of Ampush, we're unlocking a new level of social capabilities for clients designed not only for today's landscape, but for long term success - an end-to-end offering with expertise that combines creative with differentiated landing page technology and data. Not only are they the right business fit, they are also the right cultural fit who shares similar values and core philosophies for creating employee happiness and establishing an environment that empowers its employees with a culture of ownership."

This deal marks the third acquisition since 2021 for Tinuiti, following the purchase of The Ortega Group, an Amazon-specialist agency in March 2021, followed by Bliss Point Media in August 2021, formally launching Tinuiti's Streaming+ division. Ampush CEO Jon Oberlander, will lead the Tinuiti Social Division as EVP, Social and report to Tinuiti's Chief Solutions Officer, Obele Brown-West.

Jon Oberlander, EVP, Social at Tinuiti said: "Since our founding in 2010, Ampush has built a reputation as a best-in-class social agency driven by a performance-oriented culture of ownership and innovation. We believe in the effectiveness of our unique approach — leveraging both technology and creativity to solve for the entire customer acquisition journey, impression all the way through conversion, to drive unprecedented growth for our clients. Today, we're incredibly excited to bring this approach to Tinuiti, combining our talented teams and offering our clients even stronger technology-enabled solutions across the full breadth of their portfolios."

In addition to their shared business approach, Tinuiti and Ampush align deeply on company culture. Both firms believe in revolutionizing work by prioritizing a culture of ownership and in nurturing an inclusive environment that is ultimately driven by employee happiness. This shared sentiment and an overarching commitment to retaining and attracting talent is evident in Ampush's impressive roster of industry veterans and exceptional leaders.

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to Evolution Road, a digital innovation company in life science omnichannel, digital marketing and digital health strategy, on its sale to Inizio. As a result of the transaction, Evolution Road will become part of Inizio's MarComms business unit, Evoke, a leading global brand, experience, and communications platform, purpose-built to make health more human™. Evolution Road will enhance Evoke's commercial innovation offering, digital health solutions, and end-to-end omnichannel suite of services.

Evolution Road offers a range of strategic marketing services which help clients make data-driven strategic decisions to plan, execute and measure highly effective digital and omnichannel marketing programs, meet their brand objectives and improve real-world outcomes.

Reid Connolly, Global President of Inizio MarComms and CEO of Evoke said, "We are delighted to welcome Evolution Road to Evoke. We know the fantastic team very well and have successfully worked together with them on numerous occasions to create high-impact work and drive significant growth for some of the most high-profile brands in the pharma space.

There is a high level of demand from nearly all life science organizations to not merely provide strategic counsel but to help bring their omnichannel capability to life at every aspect of the journey. The combination of Evolution Road's expertise, alongside Evoke's data, customer experience and media teams will underscore Evoke's reputation as one of the most comprehensive, forward-looking and indispensable omnichannel partners in the market."

Evolution Road's President Larry Moran commented, "We are thrilled to be joining Evoke especially as we have always shared a common vision and 'digital first' heritage. Together our combined omnichannel offering will be the most powerful in the healthcare space."

Evolution Road Founder and CEO Paul Ivans added, "Finding the right partner to help take Evolution Road to the next level was incredibly important for us - one that shared our culture, values, and our approach to client objectivity. We could not be more excited to grow our business together and find new ways to help our clients unlock their true potential."

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to Outloud Media, a Detroit-based creator economy business with expertise distributing and monetizing creator content across multiple social media platforms like Facebook, on its sale to BBTV. The acquisition bolsters BBTV's Multi-Platform Partnership solution, which provides content creators additional revenue across multiple social platforms.

BBTV's Multi-Platform Partnership (MPP) solution is focused on redeploying existing creator content for scalable distribution and monetization on other social platforms, such as Facebook and Snapchat. BBTV prioritizes the monetization of creator content across platforms with high scale advertising businesses including Google and Meta.

"We are excited about the acquisition of the Outloud Media business because it continues our momentum in monetizing social viewers for our creators," commented Shahrzad Rafati, Chairperson and CEO, BBTV. "This low risk, high impact acquisition will expedite higher margin growth in the Company's Base Solutions. This acquisition is an ideal strategic fit that further amplifies BBTV's reach, massive content library, and proprietary tech to benefit our creators, advertisers, and our shareholders."

With a substantial and growing roster of prominent creators, Outloud Media has a strong reputation in the creator economy for proven distribution and revenue generation across social platforms for content creators. This acquisition also provides BBTV access to incremental data and insights to further empower the Company's content distribution and monetization across key platforms.

"We couldn't imagine a better place for the Outloud Media business to thrive," commented Joel Beckett, CEO of Outloud Group. "BBTV is one of the strongest leaders in the creator economy with solutions for content creators that are unmatched in the space. Combining Outloud Media's solutions with those of BBTV is a no-brainer for any content creator looking to succeed across multiple platforms, both for our existing creators within Outloud, and BBTV's large and growing roster."

PALAZZO is pleased to announce it has served as exclusive financial advisor to ERGO, a world-class email marketing company, on its sale to Shift Paradigm, a portfolio company of Growth Catalyst Partners. ERGO enhances advanced digital marketing personalization at scale, helping marketers leverage data and insights to auto-generate dynamic content email modules for a truly individualized one-to-one customer experience. By deepening its expertise in the areas of channel, campaign, and customer engagement, Shift Paradigm continues to pursue its vision of accelerating value creation through digital transformations that change how companies grow and engage with customers.

"ERGO deepens our expertise in the areas of channel, campaign and customer engagement, AI and digital transformation," said Liz Ross, CEO of Shift Paradigm. "With their incredible talent and track record, we are able to provide expanded best-in-class services to our wide variety of clients while continuing our promise to deliver innovative and transformative digital strategies with exceptional execution."

Shift Paradigm and ERGO's shared cultural values and commitment to driving client outcomes played a central role in bringing the companies together. ERGO has built an incredible culture of accountability and leadership that aligns with Shift Paradigm's approach to building talent.

"We are excited about the opportunity to join Shift Paradigm in its world-class service, delivering modern marketing and digital transformation," said John Hendricks, CEO of ERGO. "Shift Paradigm's focus on delivering scalable 1:1 customer engagement is a perfect fit for what we do best."

Hendricks will remain involved as a member of Shift Paradigm's Board of Directors.