Ready to Get Rich? Sell Your Mid-Sized Agency to Accenture for $63 Million

By Patrick Coffee 

Who wants to sell the agency they’ve worked so hard to build over more than a decade to … an international consultancy?!

Plenty of people. Durrr.

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Take, for example, indie Australian agency The Monkeys, which got bought by Accenture Interactive back in May. Today, Australia’s Financial Review revealed how much Accenture paid for this 11-year-old company: $63 million.

The very fact that the total is now public knowledge is very unusual—and Accenture reps’ decision not to answer FR’s questions makes one think that maybe another, somewhat self-interested party leaked the info.

Anyway, seven principals at The Monkeys and its design firm Maud just made a shitload of money. The $63 million total is even more impressive given that the agency, which employed approximately 130 people when the deal was announced, made $2.4 million in after-tax profits last year on $21.6 million in revenue.

FR also reveals that PwC was interested in buying The Monkeys before Accenture outbid them. Yet Sir Martin told Campaign last week that all these deals are “a bit odd” because consultancies and creative agencies are not culturally compatible.

Then there are the inevitable client conflicts and executive departures. This deal, like pretty much every other such acquisition, also reportedly includes “golden handcuffs” benefits packages that discourage executives from leaving after being acquired … because other agencies can’t compete with the bonus system. (The same recently happened to Heat in San Francisco after its acquisition by Deloitte, though some top-level employees decided to leave anyway after the new parent company began asserting greater control over the operation.)

We’ll see how well it works for The Monkeys. In the meantime, at least a few people are pretty happy with the deal.

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