DMG Buys Customer Data Specialist

In the UK, Digital Marketing Group has acquired Gasbox Ltd for £1.0m in cash and up to £9m in deferred payments depending on performance. The buy will strengthen DMG's Direct Marketing division, which uses customer data to produce highly targeted campaigns.

The £9m, in cash, options and shares, is dependent on achievement of profit targets after 6 and 18 months.

AIM-listed DMG has a market capitalisation of over £50m and employs more than 550 people in three business segments: Online Marketing and Media, which includes online brand consultancy, CRM and online media planning and buying; Data Services and consulting, provided under its Jaywing brand, employing nearly 100 consultants in online and offline data and information services; and Direct Marketing, which develops and executes campaigns based on highly targeted customer information and dynamic data management.

Gasbox, which will be part of the Direct Marketing segment, was launched in 2006 by Andy Gardner and Martin Boddy, founders and current managers of Jaywing, and has worked together with Jaywing on a number of successful projects. The buy will enable closer ties between Gasbox's execution capabilities and Jaywing's Digital Brain, which helps create unique contact strategies for individual consumers, based on historical data and real-time interactions.

Gasbox reported gross profit of c.£1.33m and EBITDA of (£44,000) for the year ending 31 March 2008 and gross profit of c.£1.17m and EBITDA of £358,000 for the five month period ending 31st August 2008.

Digital Marketing Group CEO Ben Langdon says Gasbox 'will bring to DMG a new route to deliver and leverage our Digital Brain offering. Gasbox's successful track record at working with the Group confirms the opportunity to be gained from bringing the companies together.'

According to Chris Hancock, Managing Director of Gasbox, the firm's consumer voice expertise and growth ambitions are a natural fit with DMG.

Web sites: www.gasbox.com and www.digitalmarketinggroup.co.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.