Next15 acquires Story Worldwide as it announces pre-tax profit fall
Marketing services group Next15 has acquired US content business Story Worldwide for $6.6m while also announcing an unaudited pre-tax loss of £0.95m for its annual figures following restricting costs.
The cash acquisition of Story, which has offices in both Seattle and New York, is set to be completed by the end of this month, with the agency having counted Unilever, Lexus and Beech-Nut amongst its clients.
Meanwhile, the group, which also owns Bite, Text 100 and Beyond, has revealed a 6 per cent unaudited growth for the 12 months to 31 July 2014, to £101.5m but reported a pre-tax profit loss following restructuring costs and consolidation within San Francisco as it moved into a new building.
Client wins by the group included brands such as GoPro, DropBox and BT over the period, while the businesses continued to transform its core offer towards digital communications, working for clients such as Google and American Express and investing in Agent3 and Republic Publishing through that strategy.
The US business proved “strong” during the 12-month period, with organic revenue growth at 12 per cent, while the group also reported revenue growth of 9 per cent to £57.3m and its operating profit increased by 15 per cent to £13.6m.
Richard Eyre, chairman of Next15 commented: “Next 15 continues to make good progress, with strong revenue growth in the US and an improving performance in the UK. The acquisition of Story Worldwide adds an exciting new business in line with the Group’s strategy of investment in content, insight and technology. Significant steps are being taken to streamline operations whilst preserving first class client service; the simplifying of our international operations in EMEA and APAC is well under way and we are co-locating our businesses in San Francisco.”
Earlier this year, Next 15 announced plans to merge its Bite and Text 100 brands in the Asia-Pacific region.
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