Marcoms Group MSQ Partners Acquired

Data and tech-enabled marcoms group MSQ Partners has been acquired by private equity firm One Equity Partners for an undisclosed sum.

Founded in 2011 through a management buyout and headquartered in London, MSQ Partners comprises eleven agencies (including research and insights provider Freemavens, delivering a broad range of services such as advertising, PR, design, brand strategy, direct digital marketing, and research. The group has more than 60 specialists with data, insight and tech capabilities, offering social media listening, qual and quant research, third-party audience profiling and research analysis, brand tracking, and market attitudinal segmentation, to help clients understand consumer behavior, actions and relationships with brands.

With more than 1,200 employees across thirteen worldwide offices, MSQ has a client base spanning industry sectors, including telecoms, financial services, pharmaceuticals, consumer products, and food and beverage. One Equity Partners says the acquisition will serve as a platform for 'further consolidation' within the tech-enabled, data-driven, marketing solutions and digital transformation sector.

Peter Reid (pictured), CEO of MSQ, comments: 'The structure of the deal and the players involved will give us access to greater resources to extend our global offering, invest in talent, technology and services and position ourselves as the leading next generation partner for the world's leading and most ambitious brands through the continued successful integration of insight, data, technology and creative'.

Web sites: www.msqpartners.com and www.oneequity.com .