Dentsu Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Toshihiro Yamamoto; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) announced today its global business headquarters Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd., has reached an agreement to acquire a 51% stake in Sokrati Technologies Private Limited (Head Office: Prune; Co-Founder and CEO: Ashish Mehta,; hereinafter 'Sokrati'), a data analytics and performance marketing company in India, with an option of making it a wholly owned subsidiary in the future.
Founded in 2009, Sokrati is India's leading data-driven performance marketing and analytics agency. With an experienced team of 138 talented individuals, Sokrati offers integrated digital services centered on advanced data analytics and CMR based marketing, including the integration of offline and hyperlocal marketing, to its predominately e-commerce client base.

In the India market, which is estimated to have close to 400 million smartphone users, Sokrati maintains a solid reputation for delivering services in the mobile advertising and e-commerce domains. The agency has been ranked among Deloitte's Top 50 Technology companies in India and has also won Google India awards including Best Quality Accounts and Largest Increase in Overall Revenue in 2014, 2015 and 2016.

The acquisition of Sokrati will launch Merkle into the key Indian market, thereby contributing to The Dentsu Group's corporate marketing activities based on data analysis. Moreover, the number of the Group's employees in India will now reach 3,500, among which 1,500, or 40%, will be digital professionals.

After the acquisition, Sokrati will be rebranded as Merkle | Sokrati. With this acquisition, the Group intends to accelerate its growth strategy in the Indian market through collaboration with other Group companies.

The impact of this transaction on Dentsu's consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2017 is expected to be minimal.

*Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd., the Dentsu Group's global business headquarters based in London, is expanding the Group's business worldwide through ten global network brands--Carat, Dentsu (Dentsu Brand Agencies), dentsu X, iProspect, Isobar, mcgarrybowen, Merkle, MKTG, Posterscope and Vizeum--as well as through several specialist/multi-market brands

Profile of Sokrati
Company Name:Sokrati Technologies Private Limited
Location: Prune, India
Date of Establishment:March 2009
Shareholding Ratio*:Dentsu Aegis Network 51%
*After acquisition has been completed
Gross Revenue:INR 225 million (year ended March 2017)
Key Management Personnel: Ashish Mehta (Co-Founder & CEO)
Anubhav Sonthalia (Co-Founder & Enterprise Business Head)
Number of Employees: 138
Line of Business: Data driven performance marketing, with CRM and data & analytics capabilities

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Dentsu Inc. published this content on 27 July 2017 and is solely responsible for the information contained herein.
Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 27 July 2017 02:09:08 UTC.

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