Naked sells to Photon for £16.5m

Ian Darby, Campaign 04-Feb-08, 21:00

LONDON - Naked Communications has been acquired by the Australian group Photon in a deal that includes an initial upfront cash payment of £16.5 million.

Photon, a publicly-listed marketing services group, has acquired 100 per cent of the business. The deal will involve a four-year earn out package for the agency's founders with future, as yet undisclosed, payments dependent on Naked hitting growth targets between 2008 and 2011.

The deal was finalised in Australia by Naked's group chief executive Nigel Long, founder Jon Wilkins and finance director Barry Dudley.

Naked is the latest acquisition for Photon, which has been growing its presence outside of Australia with recent purchases including the experiential agency Sledge, branding business Corporate Edge and PR agency Frank PR.

Naked was founded in 2000 by Will Collin, John Harlow and Jon Wilkins. Its other shareholders include the advertising agency Mother.

Will the Photon deal compromise the Naked culture and its claims to be media neutral?
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Comments

CHRIS ARNOLD - 05/02/2008

Both Frank and Naked prove the business case that you can be a creative business and make money. Too many agencies out there just churning out rubbish to make a buck. Both agencies are ground breaking and highly respected. Both led through having a strong vision and high values. Both very creative. It'll be interesting to see who else they plan to buy to complete the portfolio. But one bit of advice - keep the businesses separate and don't mess with the ethos or culture. That was the fatal mistake the Mosaic group made after it acquired a number of agencies, tried to merge them all and ended up bust.

Duncan James - 05/02/2008

Engine group MKII?

Andrew Pascoe - 05/02/2008

Photon have a pretty good record of simply being a conglomerate at the financial level, and NOT interfering at the individual business "product" level (c.f. STW Comms Group cross-sell model, or something like a BlueFreeway central sales model).

R Howell - 05/02/2008

Interesting that they also own Bellamyhayden, who have been ploughing a parallel furrow and have some of the most talented media operators in the world among their ranks.