Project Worldwide (George P Johnson) acquires Partners & Napier

Project WorldWide has bought Partners & Napier in Rochester, which works for clients like Bausch & Lomb, Constellation Brands, Delta Private Jets, Eastman Kodak, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and United Parcel Service. The financial terms of the deal, to be announced on Thursday, are not being disclosed.

The holding company is Project WorldWide in Auburn Hills, Mich., which was formed in October with a nucleus that includes agencies in the United States (George P. Johnson and Juxt Interactive), Australia (the Spinifex Group) and Germany (Raumtechnik).

Partners & Napier has 150 employees in three locations: the Rochester headquarters, an office in Atlanta and a field office in San Francisco. Plans call for the agency to fulfill a longtime goal in early May by opening an office in New York.

Partners & Napier was formed in 2004 when the executives of the Rochester outpost of the Wolf Group, part of Wolf Group Integrated Communications, completed a management buyout after the sudden closing of Wolf Group Integrated Communications.

Since then, the agency’s principals had not considered giving up their independence, said Sharon Napier, president and chief executive at Partners & Napier.

Project WorldWide has “identified no fewer than 50 potential agency targets” for additional acquisitions, Mr. Vallee said, adding that he hoped to complete three or four deals in the next year to year and a half, “a couple of which we’re already engaged in discussing.”

Partners & Napier was at one time part of a network of three independent agencies called the Partners Group, also composed of Partners & Jeary in New York and Partners & Edell in Toronto. It was dissolved after those other two agencies were acquired.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/17/business/media/17adco.html?_r=1