Madison Alley Advises TheoremOne on Merger with S4Capital and Media.Monks
The summary below includes excerpts from S4Capital’s press release.
S4Capital plc (SFOR.L), the tech-led, new-age/new-era digital advertising and marketing services company, has announced a combination between TheoremOne and Media.Monks, significantly expanding S4Capital’s technology services, consulting capabilities, and client base.
S4Capital is the parent of Media.Monks, a digital-first marketing and advertising services company connecting the dots across content, data and digital media and technology services. TheoremOne is a leader in agile innovation, engineering and design, and helps brands with their strategy and digital transformation.
TheoremOne was founded in 2007 by Will Jessup (Founder & Head of Services) and has been led since 2017 by Brady Brim-DeForest (CEO). With a team of over 370 experts distributed around the world (70% in North America), TheoremOne helps clients such as American Express, AT&T, Intel, Starbucks, Caterpillar, and several of the world’s leading technology companies conceptualize, build, support and manage their digital products, services, and experiences. The business generated revenue of $58m in 2021 – an impressive 40% growth rate on the year before.
“TheoremOne was looking for a partner that could help accelerate growth and continue to disrupt the technology consulting ecosystem,” said Brim-DeForest, “and Media.Monks and S4Capital’s entrepreneurial growth-focused culture was an excellent fit.”
Sir Martin Sorrell, S4Capital Executive Chairman said, “With the intersection of Marketing, Sales and Information Technology continuing to be a key topic for brands and all C-suite executives, we at S4Capital are building a genuinely integrated offering for our clients comprising best-in-class technology services combined with content and data&digital media expertise. We are delighted to welcome Brady, Will, David and their colleagues—their vision and ambition will no doubt be a great fit for us.”
Madison Alley served as TheoremOne’s strategic M&A advisor on the transaction with S4Capital. This is Madison Alley’s second transaction with S4Capital, previously advising Jam3 on its merger with Media.Monks in March 2021.
“Madison Alley was a steady hand at the till that led us to this strategic transaction with Media.Monks and S4Capital. We are thrilled by the outcome,” said Brady Brim-DeForest, TheoremOne’s CEO. “Madison Alley provided unique experience and connections and made sure that the momentum never let up. That’s how you get to the finish line. The results really speak for themselves.”
Madison Alley’s Marketing & Technology Services deal team included Michael Seidler, Founder + CEO; Robert Pickering, Operating Partner; Tom Crowley and Andreas Roell, Managing Directors; Veersen Ghatge, Director; and Lena Li, Associate.
Seidler commented, “This landmark strategic transaction reflects the $1 trillion dollar opportunity for S4Capital and other marketing services companies to offer strategic digital transformation capabilities to global enterprises. TheoremOne’s full-stack innovation and engineering services enables S4Capital to effectively compete with the global technology consultants and strategic management consultants.”
Crowley added, “It has been an honor and exceptional experience to advise Brady, Will, and the TheoremOne team on this strategic merger. We are proud to work with Sir Martin Sorrell and S4Capital again as they join forces with TheoremOne, significantly expanding their Technology Services offerings. Congratulations to TheoremOne, S4Capital, and Media.Monks on this landmark transaction!”
ABOUT Madison Alley
In 2003, Madison Alley Global Ventures established itself as the world’s first M&A and capital advisory firm focused exclusively on digital marketing, advertising and commerce. The firm has advised on landmark industry transactions including Deloitte Digital’s acquisition of Heat to establish the world’s first creative digital consultancy and Omnicom’s acquisition of Jump 450, the algorithmic-driven digital performance marketing agency, among others. Led by former strategic M&A and investment executives, Madison Alley combines deep industry expertise with strategic buy-side experience, enabling clients to realize M&A and capital transactions that result in Strategic Global Impact (SGI). Through Madison Alley Studios, Madison Alley provides world-class creative production to reimagine storytelling, delivering impactful presentations that drive strategic premium value for the acquired company. For more information on Madison Alley, visit www.madisonalley.com.
ABOUT TheoremOne
TheoremOne is an innovation and engineering company that advises clients on product strategy, engineering, design, and culture, then partners with them to build and launch technology-driven solutions to their most complex problems. TheoremOne is chosen by clients when results matter most — becoming the agent of change, and driving a transformation that involves not only technology, but also people, process and leadership. Founded in 2007, and headquartered in Los Angeles, Theorem’s global team of engineers, designers, technologists, researchers, strategists, and advisors, has deep expertise across a broad variety of industries including consumer electronics, automotive, manufacturing, supply chain, healthcare, finance, and entertainment.
ABOUT S4Capital
S4Capital plc (SFOR.L) is the tech-led, new age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company, established by Sir Martin Sorrell in May 2018.
Its strategy is to build a purely digital advertising and marketing services business for global, multinational, regional, local clients and millennial-driven influencer brands. This will be achieved by integrating leading businesses in three practice areas: content, data&digital media and technology services, along with an emphasis on “faster, better, cheaper” executions in an always-on consumer-led environment, with a unitary structure.
Digital is by far the fastest-growing segment of the advertising market. S4Capital estimates that in 2021 digital accounted for approximately 60% or $420-450 billion of total global advertising spend of $700-750 billion (excluding over $500 billion of trade promotion marketing, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform) and projects that by 2022 total global advertising spend will expand to $770-850 billion and digital’s share will grow to approximately 65% and by 2024 to approximately 70%, accelerated by the impact of covid-19.
In 2018, S4Capital combined with MediaMonks, the leading AdAge A-listed creative digital content production company led by Victor Knaap and Wesley ter Haar, and then with MightyHive, the market-leading digital media solutions provider for future thinking marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin.
Since then, MediaMonks and MightyHive have combined with more than 25 companies across content, data&digital media and technology services. For a full list, please see the S4Capital website. In August 2021, S4Capital launched its unitary brand by merging MediaMonks and MightyHive into Media.Monks, represented by a dynamic logo mark that features MightyHive’s iconic hexagon. As the operational brand, Media.Monks underpins S4Capital’s agility, digital knowledge and efficiency and is the next step in delivering on its foundational promise to unify content, data&digital media and technology services.
Victor Knaap, Wesley ter Haar, Pete Kim, Christopher Martin, Mary Basterfield and Scott Spirit all joined the S4Capital Board as Directors. The S4Capital Board also includes Rupert Faure Walker, Paul Roy, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer, Elizabeth Buchanan, Naoko Okumoto, Margaret Ma Connolly, Peter Rademaker and Miles Young.
The Company now has over 8,500 people in 33 countries across the Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific and a current market capitalisation of approximately £3.0billion (c.$4.0billion) and would rankinside the FTSE 150. It achieved Unicorn status in a little over one year, unique in the advertising and marketing services industry. Sir Martin was CEO of WPP for 33 years, building it from a £1 million “shell” company in 1985 into the world’s largest advertising and marketing services company with a market capitalisation of over £16 billion on the day he left. Today its market capitalisation is £12 billion. Prior to that Sir Martin was Group Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company Plc for nine years.
CONTACT
MICHAEL SEIDLER, FOUNDER AND CEO
michael.seidler@madisonalley.com
ROBERT PICKERING, OPERATING PARTNER
robert.pickering@madisonalley.com
TOM CROWLEY, MANAGING DIRECTOR
tom.crowley@madisonalley.com
ANDREAS ROELL, MANAGING DIRECTOR
andreas.roell@madisonalley.com