Next Fifteen Completes Morar Acquisition

UK-based digital marcoms group Next Fifteen has acquired the remaining 25% stake in brand market research and advisory consultancy Morar.

Founded in 2005 by Roger Perowne and Alistair Cunningham, Morar specialises in measuring and advising on brand performance through a combination of research - including concept testing, customer experience evaluation, and employee engagement measurement - strategy and brand positioning services. Its team includes researchers, consultants, strategists and software developers working from offices in London, New York and San Francisco.

As its name suggests, Next 15 owns fifteen marketing businesses specialising in communications, programmatic ad technology, digital content marketing, policy communications, creative, investor relations, and market research, along with a marketing software business called agent3. The group took an initial 75% stake in Morar in 2014, and has now purchased the remaining share by settling in full the remaining obligation for the original purchase and for the minority interest. This totals £3.55m - the first tranche of £1.86m paid yesterday (comprising £1.59m in cash with the balance of £0.27m being satisfied by the issue of 118,162 new ordinary shares), and the second tranche of £1.69m payable on 28 February 2017, conditional on the continued employment of the sellers.

Web sites: www.next15.com and www.morarconsulting.com .