TIDMSFOR
RNS Number : 5129U
S4 Capital PLC
29 July 2020
29 July 2020
S4 Capital plc
("S (4) Capital" or "the Company")
Orca Pacific to merge with MightyHive
MightyHive strengthens eCommerce capabilities in merger with
Seattle-based Amazon managed-service provider Orca Pacific
S (4) Capital plc (SFOR.L), the tech-led, new age, new era
digital advertising and marketing services company, announces that
its data and programmatic media practice MightyHive intends to
merge with Orca Pacific , a market leading full-service Amazon
agency and boutique consultancy firm based out of Seattle.
The deal builds on S (4) Capital's existing Amazon relationship,
equipping teams with an end-to-end eCommerce offering, including
retail management, advertising and content on Amazon's platform,
which can bridge the gap between media, creative and measurement
more broadly to deliver additional expertise and services
capabilities for SMB, Mid-Market and Enterprise clients.
This is S (4) Capital's first merger since successfully raising
GBP116m in an equity placement to fund its M&A strategy and the
third since covid-19 hit hard, as the Company continues to expand
its functional capabilities and geographical coverage, without
prejudicing its balance sheet.
Orca Pacific, founded in 2008 by John Ghiorso, helps top
consumer brands optimize their customer journey and grow their
Amazon business through a combination of expertise and
industry-leading technology. The company employs over 40 former
Amazonians and retail industry experts and partners with clients
including Reebok, Uni-ball, OshKosh B'gosh, Godiva, Del Monte and
Kenroy Home.
Morgan Stanley's recent "Mid-year US Advertising Outlook" Report
predicted US eCommerce would grow 38% this year vs a pre-covid-19
projection of 13%, effectively pulling forward three years of
eCommerce adoption into 2020 to represent 24.5% penetration of
total adjusted retail sales. The Morgan Stanley Alphawise survey
revealed "74% of people shopping online started on Amazon"
illustrating the strength of Amazon as a gateway to eCommerce.
S (4) Capital Executive Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell said, "We
are delighted to welcome John and his colleagues to S (4) Capital.
Amazon has become synonymous with eCommerce and it is both an
important client and partner for us at S (4) Capital. The merger
with Orca Pacific allows us to extend that partnership and provide
a full range of eCommerce and Marketplace services to our clients.
Stronger partnerships with the key platforms and the leading
software and hardware suppliers are increasingly key for our
clients and ourselves."
"The merger with Orca Pacific allows MightyHive to build on our
existing partnership with Amazon in Advertising and Programmatic
and expand this to offer a full spectrum of eCommerce solutions to
our clients." said Pete Kim, founder and CEO of MightyHive. "We've
seen a significant uptick in demand for eCommerce capabilities
making this the perfect time to welcome John, Kashif, Lisa and the
team at Orca Pacific."
John Ghiorso, CEO and Founder of Orca Pacific said, "The
dramatic and sustained increase we have seen in eCommerce
penetration means clients need experienced sector specialists to
help integrate Amazon services into their sales and marketing
plans. By teaming up with MightyHive and collaborating with
MediaMonks, Orca Pacific's existing bench of advanced Amazon
experts is now positioned to offer global capabilities, along with
expanded data, creative and media solutions to clients."
Enquiries
S (4) Capital plc Tel: +44 (0)20 3793 0003
Sir Martin Sorrell, Executive Chairman
Powerscourt (PR adviser to S (4) Capital plc) Tel: +44 (0)7970 246 725
Elly Williamson
Jessica Hodgson
About MightyHive
MightyHive is the leading data and digital media consultancy
that helps marketers take control. MightyHive delivers sustained
results from the ground up through advisory for business
transformation, privacy-first data strategy, and digital media
services.
The company is headquartered in San Francisco, with a team of
consultants, platform experts, data scientists, and marketing
engineers in 19 countries and 23 cities around the world. In 2018,
MightyHive merged with S (4) Capital plc (SFOR.L), a tech-led new
age/new era digital advertising and marketing services company
established by Sir Martin Sorrell.
About Orca Pacific
Orca Pacific, made up of former Amazonians and retail industry
experts, helps top consumer brands grow their Amazon business
through unmatched expertise and industry-leading technology. Orca
Pacific knows that being there for customers with relevant
advertising, compelling content, and sound operations is the only
way to build a sustainable path toward growth, so they focus on
optimizing every stage of the customer journey.
About S (4) Capital
S (4) Capital 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 initially by integrating leading businesses in three
practice areas: first-party data, digital content, digital media
planning and buying, 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. S (4) Capital estimates that in 2019 digital accounted for
approximately 47.5% or $275 billion of total global advertising
spend of $550-600 billion (excluding about $400 billion of trade
support, the primary target of the Amazon advertising platform),
and projects that by 2022 this share will grow to approximately
55-60%.
S (4) Capital combined with MediaMonks, the leading AdAge
A-listed creative digital content production company led by Victor
Knaap and Wesley ter Haar, in July 2018, and with MightyHive, the
market-leading programmatic solutions provider for future thinking
marketers and agencies, led by Peter Kim and Christopher S. Martin,
in December 2018.
In April 2019, MightyHive merged with ProgMedia to expand
operations into Latin America and MediaMonks acquired film studio
Caramel Pictures to expand content studio capabilities. In June
2019, MediaMonks announced a planned merger with Australia-based
BizTech, a leading marketing transformation and customer experience
company. In August 2019, MediaMonks merged with Amsterdam-based
digital influencer marketing agency IMA. In October 2019,
MediaMonks merged with Firewood Marketing, the largest digital
marketing agency based in Silicon Valley, that was recently ranked,
along with MediaMonks, as one of the fastest growing agencies by
Adweek, and MightyHive merged with award-winning UK-based digital
analytics, biddable media and data science company ConversionWorks
and South Korea-based data and analytics consultancy MightyHive
Korea. In November 2019, MediaMonks announced its merger with
Delhi-based content creation and production company WhiteBalance
and then with fully integrated digital agency Circus Marketing in
January 2020. In July 2020, MightyHive merged with Digodat, one of
the leading Latin American data and analytics consultancies. In
June 2020, MightyHive announced its merger with Lens10, a leading
Australian digital strategy and analytics consultancy.
On 16 July 2020 the company announced the successful placing of
36,766,642 new ordinary shares at a price of 315p raising
approximately GBP116m gross proceeds which will be used for further
expansion and M&A purposes.
Victor, Wesley, Pete, Christopher and Peter Rademaker (formerly
Chief Financial Officer of MediaMonks, now Chief Financial Officer
of S (4) Capital), all joined the S (4) Capital Board as Directors.
The S (4) Capital Board also includes Rupert Faure Walker, Paul
Roy, Daniel Pinto, Sue Prevezer, Elizabeth Buchanan, Scott Spirit,
Naoko Okumoto, Margaret Ma Connolly and Miles Young.
The Company has 2,650 people in 30 countries across the
Americas, Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia-Pacific and a
market capitalisation of approximately GBP1.7 billion (c.$2.2
billion), and would rank well into the FTSE 250. It has 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 GBP1
million "shell" company in 1985 into the world's largest
advertising and marketing services company with a market
capitalisation of over GBP16 billion on the day he left. Today its
market capitalisation is GBP7.3 billion. Prior to that he was Group
Financial Director of Saatchi & Saatchi Company plc for nine
years.
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END
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