Chicago tech and design firm Rightpoint has bought one of its competitors, expanding its presence with 100 more employees in six new cities.
The acquisition of Boston-based Agency Oasis, announced Tuesday, will help Rightpoint reach more deeply into the healthcare and financial services sectors.
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Rightpoint, founded in 2007 by Ross Freedman and Brad Schneider, offers creative and technology services for clients — building, for example, a public-facing website for Exelon and a mobile app for Jones Lang LaSalle’s brokers.
Agency Oasis — which has offices in Boston, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco and Dallas — will rebrand and operate under the Rightpoint name. Rightpoint already has offices in Chicago, Denver and Detroit and the acquistion brings it to 300 employees.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Rightpoint said the purchase was fueled by a $55 million investment from New York-based private equity firm Stella Point Capital, announced in May 2015.
Though Rightpoint has worked with clients in health care and financial services, the company said the acquisition of Agency Oasis will add new clients and give the company new capabilities in those industries, which pose additional hurdles like security issues and government regulations.
With a few major holding companies like Publicis and Omnicom at the very top gobbling up smaller agencies, “there really is a void in this area in between smaller agencies and these massive billion-dollar holding companies,” Agency Oasis CEO Jeff McMahon said.
“I think it’s exciting to have a middle-market alternative for a lot of clients who are looking to improve their digital performance without necessarily having to work with one of these behemoth holding companies,” McMahon said.
Freedman said Rightpoint talked to 50 companies in the last nine months as it sought the right fit to help it bone up on new services and expand geographically. The company said it seeks to become a national player while remaining independent and nimble.
They’re eyeing further growth in the year ahead, including possibly acquiring companies focused on mobile application development and Salesforce.
“We still have capital that we expect and anticipate putting to work,” Rightpoint co-CEO Schneider said.
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