DAN acquires majority stake in Ugam

Dentsu Aegis Network (DAN) has acquired a majority stake in India-based Ugam, a data and analytics company serving both business-to-business and business-to-consumer enterprises. Ugam will join Merkle - a data-driven, technology-enabled, global performance marketing agency and part of DAN.

The business will now become Ugam - a Merkle Company - led by Sunil Mirani, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, reporting to Craig Dempster, President, Merkle Americas. Reporting structures for the rest of the management team of Ugam will remain unchanged, as they and the rest of the senior leaders will play a key role in the growth plans of the company.

Sunil Mirani

Speaking on the occasion, Mirani said, “We have found the perfect partner in Merkle. We complement each other’s strengths, with Ugam bringing advanced analytics capabilities at scale, and Merkle bringing a diverse client base with a largely in-country presence... This deal marks a significant milestone in Ugam’s journey, and I look forward to this new phase with renewed vigor.”

With more than 1,800 employees in India, the United States and Australia, Ugam represents one of the largest transactions in Merkle’s history. Ugam’s comprehensive set of solutions are highly complementary to Merkle’s existing capabilities. Its analytical sophistication and proprietary frameworks and tools will add new capabilities to Merkle’s existing service lines.

“Ugam is vital to the execution of Merkle’s multi-year analytics strategy of creating a scaled on- and offshore shared analytics service across DAN. With its experienced management team, highly-educated workforce, scale, and vertical market expertise, Ugam will bring high-end analytics capabilities, along with a broad spectrum of analytical decision support,” said Dempster.

Alex Yoder, Executive Vice President, analytics for Merkle, added, “As the analytics business becomes increasingly commoditised, the pressure to expand capabilities into predictive and prescriptive methodologies simultaneously intensifies. Merkle’s majority stake in Ugam and its resulting enhanced scale and capabilities will be instrumental as we scale to effectively compete with top analytic consulting firms over the next three to five years.”

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