Jellyfish in sale talks with The Brandtech Group

The Brandtech Group, formerly known as You & Mr Jones, has entered “exclusive negotiations to potentially acquire” Jellyfish, the  performance and digital marketing agency.

Jellyfish, which has its headquarters in the UK, was launched by chief executive Rob Pierre  in 2005 and now has 40 global offices with 2,250 employees, including 680 in the UK.

It would be the latest in a string of acquisitions by The Brandtech Group, which was founded by former Havas chief executive David Jones in 2015 and has grown into a business with more than 5,000 employees and revenue of more than $500million.

Jellyfish describes itself as a “digital partner” to some of the world’s leading brands. The agency, which counts Aviva Investors, Duracell, Google UK and Toyota Aftersales among its accounts, says its compound annual growth rate has averaged 45% since 2013. It lost 12 accounts in 2021, three of which it resigned, but also won 25 pieces of new business.

Its recent appointments include hiring Adam & Eve/DDB’s executive strategy director Tom Roach, to lead brand planning, and Thomas Byrne and Adam Guilfoyle, both from Merkle, to sales leadership roles. Byrne subsequently departed to join RocketMill as CEO.

Jellyfish acquired five companies in 2021, three with a UK presence: Splash Worldwide, Quill and MyPoseo.

Its main backer is French investment group Fimalac, with which The Brandtech Group is in talks.

Jellyfish declined to comment on the announcement of talks by The Brandtech Group.

The Brandtech Group said in a statement: “The Brandtech Group announced today it has entered into exclusive negotiations with Fimalac and Jellyfish, to potentially acquire global digital marketing company, Jellyfish.”