Contract sales firm Ventiv Health has agreed to buy independent healthcare marketing and advertising network InChord for $185 million in cash and stock.
InChord chairman and chief executive Blane Walter, who will preside over Ventiv’s communications division, said the deal offers a good cultural and strategic fit for both companies. “There are no redundancies between our capabilities and those of Ventiv,” said Walter. “We serve the same industry, and there’s little overlap in our clients.”
As a result, InChord will continue to operate from its current offices and under its current brands, Walter said, with no layoffs. The InChord chief talked to several big marketing holding companies, he said, in looking for a partner, but settled on Ventiv due to its size and the potential synergy between the two firms’ offerings. In particular, the two firms will be looking at pairing InChord’s multi-channel marketing capabilities with Ventiv’s sales analytics business.
InChord, which is headquartered in Westerville, Ohio and includes such brands as GSW Worldwide, Palio Communications and Cadent Medical Communications, is expected to contribute around 25 percent of Somerset, N.J.-based Ventiv’s revenues.
Ventiv brands include Promotech and The Franklin Group. The firm, which went public in 1999, has been rapaciously acquisitive over the past year as it has extended its offering from contract sales into analytics, consulting and measurement.