Progressive marcoms group MSQ has bought leading German customer experience digital agency UDG. UDG, which employs 350 people, is intended to be one of the foundations of a pan-European CX and tech operation, evnetually rolled out into North America too. MSQ recently bought US agency SPCSHP (formerly Big Spaceship.)
UDG, headquartered in Hamburg with an outpost in Spain, will continue to be led by co-managing partners Mathias Reinhardt and Florian Frey. With revenue of £40m, clients include Porsche, Fendt, Bosch and Vaillant. MSQ now has 1,850 staff in 22 offices working across 22 global offices with revenue of £200m. MSQ is backed by One Equity Partners and LDC.
MSQ CEO Peter Reid says: “The acquisition of UDG is a bold and significant move for us as we build our customer experience and tech capabilities across digital experience, digital product, digital transformation and digital commerce to deliver for international and global organisations.
“The creation of an international digital customer experience and tech powerhouse, initially in Europe and then rolled out into North America, creates rich opportunities for cross-pollination across our agencies, building momentum, strength and depth in what we can deliver for clients.”
UDG bosses Reinhardt and Frey say: “MSQ’s capabilities, investment and entrepreneurial ethos make it the ideal platform for UDG to truly scale the work we do for our German-based clients on an international scale.
“We admire MSQ’s operating model and its people and look forward to making UDG the best it can be, working collaboratively with our new MSQ colleagues to bring new opportunities, experiences and skills to the benefit of our agency, our team and our clients.”
