Gail Chiasson, North American Editor
Mergers and acquisitions firm AdMedia Partners Inc., New York, acted as financial advisor to Minneapolis-based Olson, an integrated marketing technology and digital solutions provider, in its recent acquisition by ICF International, provider of consulting services and technology solutions to government and commercial clients.
ICF purchased Olson for $295 million in cash from private equity firm KRG Capital Partners and other minority shareholders.
Bruce Rogers, managing director and co-founder of KRG, says, “AdMedia did a great job on this transaction. It identified ICF as a potential buyer for Olson, and handled the negotiations with ICF to bring the deal to a successful closing.”
John Partilla, Olson’s CEO, agreed, saying, “AdMedia has incredible knowledge of the digital marketing space, and its experience and depth of the team was critical in making this a successful transaction.”
Olson provides digital marketing solutions around customer engagement and branding and is widely recognized for its innovative strategic advisory work, its software-driven customer loyalty programs and its analytics-based marketing.
This acquisition strengthens and expands ICF’s digital marketing capabilities, enabling clients to transform the way they engage with customers and stakeholders. Combined with ICF’s existing digital technology implementation capabilities, Olson will help drive multi-channel marketing initiatives across web, mobile, email, social, print, broadcast and off-premise platforms. Olson’s diversified roster of marquee clients spans a broad range of industry categories, including health, energy and transportation, complementing ICF’s work in those areas, in addition to its significant consumer/retail presence.
As a result of the acquisition, 545 professionals will join ICF. The acquisition also includes Olson’s Tally, a CRM-driven loyalty platform that enables clients to drive rewards and marketing programs; Social Media Accelerator, a rich proprietary fact base and planning tool to plan and manage social media investment; and Brand Anthropology, a research-based tool to quantitatively segment markets and build brands.
AdMedia has completed over 180 transactions for clients valued in excess of $8 billion since 1999.
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