Diana Marszalek 30 Mar 2023 // 4:15PM GMT
MIAMI — LLYC has acquired San Diego tech agency BAM, doubling the Spanish firm’s presence in the US.
The cash deal calls for LLYC to buy an 80% stake of BAM, with the price subject to adjustment based on the agency’s performance between 2022-2025. BAM’s current valuation is $13.2 million.
Founder and CEO Rebecca Bamberger will maintain a stake in the company, which will continue to operate under its own brand.
Buying BAM will make LLYC’s Miami-based US operation a $17 million business, making it the firm’s third largest market after Spain ($39 million) and Mexico ($18.1). Staff will roughly double in size to 65 members working on both sides of the country.
“This is not an acquisition it’s an integration,” said Alejandro Romero, who was promoted from Americas head to global CEO in November. “The most important thing right now is that Beck is a partner.”
The LLYC/BAM deal has been roughly a year in the making, the result of Bamberger’s two-year search for a partner to expand and complement BAM’s company and culture.
“The ability, in frankly overnight, to be able to say we’re in 13 countries combined with the firepower to be able to say that to clients, is hugely important,” Bamberger said. “As of tomorrow, these are all the things we can do.”
The US expansion is part of LLYC’s aggressive multi-tiered growth plan, which calls for doubling in size by 2024.
LLYC, which focuses on Spanish and Portuguese-speaking markets, reported 2021 income of €64.1 million, up 43.5% on the previous year.
The agency went public in July 2021, when it was listed on Spanish stock market BME Growth. At that time, LLYC set a goal of raising €10 million through stock offerings.
In September 2021, LLYC bought Mexican creative agency Beso, tripling the size of its operation in the market. In addition, the firm acquired Spanish ad agency China in August 2021 and Spanish digital shop Apache in May of that year.
LLYC has acquired other agencies in the past six years: Impossible Tellers (Spain, 2015), S/A Comunicaçao (Brazil, 2015), EDF (USA, 2015), Arenalia (Spain, 2018), Diplolicy (Spain, 2018), and Factor C (Chile, 2020).
A 2015 investment from MBO & Co helped fuel the growth. In April 2021, however, LLYC bought back the private equity firm’s 30% stake in the company