Forward advises Touchdown shareholders on sale to Ruder Finn
Forward is delighted to have advised the shareholders of Touchdown PR on the sale of the business to US headquartered, Ruder Finn.
Ruder Finn’s global footprint will enable Touchdown to further accelerate its strong revenue growth, attract the best new talent, and win exciting business and technology clients seeking a global solution to their PR and communications needs. For Ruder Finn, Touchdown significantly enhances its Technology and Innovation practice adding innovative technology clients and a major presence in both the US and UK.
Led by Sarah Moores and Amie Goodlad, Forward Corporate Finance were retained to work with the Touchdown shareholders to help advise on and deliver the next phase of their journey. Forward ran a competitive sale process with interest from both global trade buyers and private equity. The shareholders felt a clear and close alignment of values with the Ruder Finn leadership team, particularly in terms of people culture, global ambitions and how to manage growth successfully.
James Carter, Touchdown CEO commented, “From the early conversations discussing our options, Forward were thorough and professional. They prepared and presented the business well and our decision to work with them was repeatedly vindicated when potential buyers kept commenting that the financial data they had prepared was of the highest quality. We were pleasantly surprised by the number of interested parties that lined up.”
He added, “Forward’s forensic-like attention to the financial as well as human detail throughout the process gave us huge confidence that our interests were well protected. They drove the project forward and provided us with the right information to help us make our decision. I would 100% recommend them to other owner managers looking to sell their business.”
Founded by James and Emma Carter 16 years ago, Touchdown specialises in servicing clients in the enterprise technology innovation sector, ranging from cyber security, data protection/management and storage, to networks, communications, big data, AI and cloud. Touchdown helps to tell their client’s stories of innovative breakthroughs, helping these brands break into markets typically dominated by incumbent technology companies, by delivering valuable earned, owned and paid media airtime at global scale and winning the attention of potential customers. Touchdown’s clients include Barracuda, Bitdefender, Exabeam, Cubic, Globalization Partners, Forter, Progress Software and more. The agency operates in North America, across Central and Western Europe and in all major Asian markets and is headquartered in Basingstoke and Austin, Texas.
Founded in 1948, Ruder Finn is one of the world’s largest independent global communications and creative agencies, with PR Week reporting revenues in excess of $110m for 2021. The acquisition is the latest in a series of recent deals to build on its capabilities in healthcare, technology, creative and change management, and its third in 2022 alone.
Sarah Moores, Director Forward Corporate Finance said, “It has been a real pleasure to advise James, Emma and their team on this transaction. Touchdown is a great company and understandably it generated excellent interest from both trade and private equity buyers. We sit beside our clients every step of the way and to be able to guide them from those early ideas to a completed transaction has been immensely rewarding. We wish them every success as part of the Ruder Finn family.”
Legal advice to the shareholders was provided by Oliver Pritchard, Lizzy Page, and Tom Maksymiw from Howes Percival.