A former shrimpboat captain has sailed into London and netted one of the UK’s biggest new media agencies. Agency.Com has bought the remaining shares it did not already own in Online Magic, a company with headquarters in London and an office in New York on undisclosed terms. Agency.com took a majority stake in Online Magic in June last year and is it itself 40%-owned by advertising and media holding company Omnicom Inc, which bought its stake in September 1996. Agency.com is headed by the charismatic figure of Chan Suh, who abandoned catching shrimps in favor of snaring multi-million dollar contracts from major companies. The company expects 1998 revenues of $30m, up from $13m in 1997. Online Magic was started by former employees of ComputerWire, the publisher of Computergram, who prospered as companies rushed to establish their own web sites. The two companies will have more than 200 employees and a list of blue chip clients that includes American Express, British Airways, GTE, General Motors, Hewlett-Packard, Hitachi America, Lucent Technologies, Prudential, Showtime Networks and Uncle Ben’s. The move will be watched closely by traditional advertising agencies that have established new media businesses of their own in a bid to prevent revenues being sucked away by their more internet aware clients. But new media companies believe that existing agencies are shackled by a culture based on traditional advertising and find it difficult to come to terms with the world of the web and the promise of interactive TV. With companies looking for a global presence on the internet, the pressure for new media companies to expand geographically is irresistible and Agency.com sees the takeover as essential to build its presence in Europe.
