Dive Brief:
- CRM firm Merkle has announced its acquisition of search agency RKG.
- Both firms were named to AdAge's 2014 list of fastest-growing independent U.S. search agencies, and together will form the largest independent search ad agency in the U.S.
- While financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed, the combined media billings for 2014 are estimated to be well over $550 million.
Dive Insight:
The acquisition will certainly give Merkle more scale in search ads than it had before. The two firms seem to compliment each other and have similar goals in mind. The acquisition is part of Merkle's five-year quest to expand digital capabilities and its second digital agency acquisition this year, following creative communications agency New Control.
