JEGI Represents Ad Tracking Firm Competitrack in Sale to Market Track
New York, NY October 24, 2013 Market Track, LLC, the leading provider of retail promotion, real-time eCommerce, and pricing intelligence solutions in North America, announced today that it has acquired Competitrack, Inc. from the company’s founder, Bob Moss. Bob will remain with the company, serving as an advisor to Market Track and its Board of Directors. Competitrack President, Ginny Tuckman, will remain in her role with the firm. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (www.jegi.com) of New York, NY, the leading independent investment bank for the media, information, marketing, and technology sectors, represented Competitrack in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.
Based in New York City, Competitrack is a leading provider of directly placed product and image advertising data across 22 media channels, including TV, print, radio, online display, online video, social, and mobile advertising. With more than 500 clients that span many of the largest brands in the world, Competitrack has become recognized as an indispensable resource for advertisers, analysts, and agencies that require exceptionally fast and accurate insight into media spending trends and creative messaging.
Commenting on the transaction, Market Track CEO Wayne Mincey said, “This combination will be incredibly valuable to clients of both firms. The unique media and content coverage that each of our organizations brings to this partnership will quickly allow clients from both companies access to a more comprehensive view of what is hitting the market and influencing their customers. As an example, Market Track plans to integrate Competitrack’s promotions-related TV, radio, and mobile coverage, while Competitrack clients will have access to Market Track’s internet ads featured on over 200 retailers’ websites, as well as deeper print and FSI coverage.”
Bob Moss, Competitrack’s founder, added, “This is terrific for both companies and their respective clients. We share a common culture, marked by a passion for serving clients, and a deep commitment to innovation, technological leadership, and product excellence. Both companies provide comprehensive market and media coverage, highly detailed datasets, and an understanding that speed of information is critical to the decision makers we serve. The combined expertise and complementary datasets of the two firms will enable us to offer what I am confident will be the strongest competitive tracking and analytics capabilities available.”
Ginny Tuckman, Competitrack’s President, said, “What is really exciting about this combination is that it will notably strengthen both companies’ product offerings and allow for even greater investment and innovation going forward. Our clients will benefit from a significant expansion in media coverage, the introduction of detailed online reporting, and the fastest cross-media competitive data available in the country.”
“Competitrack is exactly the type of company we were hoping to pair with Market Track when we first partnered with Wayne and his team last year,” said Josh Klinefelter, Partner at Aurora Capital Group, Market Track’s principal investor. “What we see here are two companies with highly complementary capabilities and the shared attributes of core intellectual property, a premier client base with extraordinarily strong renewal rates, and some of the highest Net Promoter Scores we have seen in the software and information services space. Together, we are highly confident that these two great companies will continue to innovate and bring additional insights to their customers.”
About Competitrack
Based in New York City, Competitrack is a full service competitive advertising tracking firm whose clients span virtually all major industries and include over 75 of the nation’s top 100 advertisers and their ad agencies. Competitrack provides fully customizable solutions, both domestically and internationally, for creative monitoring, competitive spending, ad message content analysis, and data inputs for marketing mix models. Competitrack’s FastTrack media reporting is the fastest in the country, providing highly granular spend data for 11 media across more than 1,700 media channels within 4 days of the close of each week, and delivering breaking creatives for leading media within 6-24 hours of first appearance. Competitrack has the most comprehensive creative archive in the country, with access to over 11 million ads from the U.S. and more than 60 other countries. For more information, visit www.competitrack.com.
About Market Track
Headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, Market Track is the leading provider of promotion and pricing intelligence solutions in North America. Offered via a web-based software-as-a-service platform called FeatureVision®, Market Track’s solutions enable retailers and manufacturers of consumer goods to efficiently monitor and analyze causal data, including real-time eCommerce data, to maximize the value of their promotional and pricing campaigns. Customers use FeatureVision® as both a competitive intelligence tool to determine how products and brands are being promoted, and to ensure compliance with trade promotion agreements. The company’s granular promotions data covers nearly every retail trade class, product category, and media channel, measuring promotional activity during the critical 0-7 days before a consumer’s purchase decision. For more information, visit www.markettrack.com.
About Aurora Capital Group
Aurora Capital Group is a Los Angeles-based private investment firm managing over $2.0 billion of capital across several private equity funds. Aurora’s traditional private equity vehicle, Aurora Equity Partners, focuses principally on control investments in middle market businesses with leading market positions, strong cash flow profiles, and actionable opportunities for growth in partnership with operating management. Aurora’s investors include leading public and corporate pension funds, endowments, and foundations active in private equity investing. For more information, visit www.auroracap.com.
About The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.
The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. (JEGI) of New York, the leading independent investment bank for the media, information, marketing and technology sectors, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2012. Since 1987, JEGI has completed more than 500 high‐profile M&A transactions for global corporations; middle-market and emerging companies; entrepreneurial owners; and private equity and venture capital firms. For more information, visit www.jegi.com.
“We couldn’t be happier with the outcome of our transaction – and with our decision to partner with JEGI. We researched five firms in depth before choosing JEGI because of their long experience in our space, their broad contact network, their realistic perspective on our prospects in the market and the optimal positioning for our firm. JEGI delivered on every front. Their broad, high quality panel of prospective buyers included many that had never been on our radar screen. They helped us articulate a clear, strong message about our firm, and they expertly guided us through the many challenges and uncertainties that seem endemic to this type of process. Knowing that JEGI was in our corner gave a great deal of confidence at every turn. We are very pleased with how our auction was conducted – and with the final outcome. Without any doubt, JEGI was a superb partner.”
– Bob Moss, CEO & Founder, Competitrack