Martin Sorrell's S4 Capital snaps up another digital agency

Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital snaps up another marketing agency as it continues to grow rapidly through acquisitions

S4’s Media Monks has entered an agreement with Los Angeles based XX Artists
Deal set to expand its capabilities and client base in its core US market

By This Is Money

Published: 06:48 EDT, 1 July 2022 | Updated: 06:48 EDT, 1 July 2022

Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital has snapped up another marketing agency as it continues to grow rapidly through acquisitions.

The group said its Media Monks business has entered an agreement with social media marketing services agency XX Artists, in a deal that would expand its capabilities and client base in its core US market.

Headquartered in Los Angeles with a ‘majority-female, majority-diverse team of 125 globally’, XX Artists works with clients such as Google, YouTube, Logitech, and Ancestry.com.

Acquisition spree: S4 Capital chairman, Sir Martin Sorrell

XX Artists made gross profit ‘in excess’ of $12million in 2021, and is continuing to see strong growth this year, according to S4.

Chairman Sir Martin Sorrell said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Kyle and his colleagues to the family.

‘Their exciting growth, diverse talent base and prestigious clients will help fuel the development of our best-in-class social media capabilities in the United States and internationally.’

The acquisition is one of many in recent years, with the previous announced just over a month ago.

In May, S4 Capital announced that MediaMonks would combine with Los Angeles-based TheoremOne for an undisclosed sum.

At the time, S4 Capital said it expected the deal to boost its underlying earnings by over 5 per cent this financial year.

S4 Capital shares rose 1.7 per cent to 233p in morning trading on Friday.

The stock is down more than 60 per cent compared to a year ago.

The company postponed its annual results twice earlier this year because accounting giant PwC could not complete its work due to a series of audit problems.

Last month, S4 said it had already made ‘changes’ in areas including governance, financial reporting and control, internal audit, and risk and compliance.

It also pledged it would beef up audit oversight and appoint a new non-executive chairman to its audit committee to make sure that they ‘never experience an unacceptable delay in our results again’.

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