Dentsu Group Acquires a Majority Stake in Extentia to Strengthen Customer Transformation and Technology Capabilities

NEW YORK, Aug. 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Dentsu Group Inc. (Tokyo: 4324; ISIN: JP3551520004; President & CEO: Hiroshi Igarashi; Head Office: Tokyo; Capital: 74,609.81 million yen) announced today that it has entered an agreement to acquire a majority stake in Extentia, a global technology and services firm with a focus on enterprise mobility, cloud engineering, and user experiences. Extentia will join Merkle, a leading technology-enabled, data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company within Dentsu Group's international business, Dentsu International.

Established in 1998, Extentia has nearly 800 staff in Pune and Bangalore, India. With this acquisition, Extentia further bolsters Merkle's existing Salesforce capabilities, adding scale and additional geography in India. As a Salesforce Crest Partner and one of the nine Salesforce product development outsourcers globally, Extentia adds expertise with more than 350 Salesforce certifications and new Salesforce App Cloud capabilities. The union will further expand Merkle's existing offering in Salesforce Sales and Service Cloud capabilities.

Dentsu Group has more than 1,300 Salesforce trained staff and 3,500 Salesforce certifications, providing customer experience transformation solutions that are aligned with Salesforce Cloud capabilities. Merkle's Salesforce offering is underpinned by its longstanding expertise in outcome-led customer experience, driven by data and enabled by marketing technology, cementing its unique positioning in the Salesforce ecosystem.

The acquisition demonstrates Dentsu Group's commitment to enabling clients to deliver best-in-class differentiated and connected experiences across the entire customer journey. It aligns with Dentsu Group's stated ambition of reaching 50% of net revenue generated by Customer Transformation & Technology (CT&T)*, encompassing the fast growth areas of customer experience and commerce.

"As one of Salesforce's largest partners and its top agency partner, we owe it to our customers to deliver world-class, cross-functional, cross-platform expertise," said Michael Komasinski, global CEO, Merkle. "Extentia differentiates itself through a design-first approach to its cloud-native technical and engineering product solutions, This strategic acquisition will allow Merkle and dentsu to meet the growing market demand for support our clients in driving complex architecture integrations."

"We're incredibly excited about this next phase of Extentia's journey. We've found a perfect partner in Merkle – complementing our respective strengths, scaling our digital capabilities, and delivering positive value for all our stakeholders," said Umeed Kothavala, CEO at Extentia.  "Building on our capabilities across digital transformation, experience-centricity, and cloud platforms, Extentia and Merkle will deliver advanced solutions to more customers across the world than ever before. As a member of the growing Merkle family, we look forward to shared opportunities, limitless synergies, and collaborating on a shared vision of the future."

Extentia employees, including the leadership team, will make the transition to Merkle. The company will be known as "Extentia, a Merkle Company" with immediate effect and will develop joint go-to-market plans and accelerate growth across both businesses.

Part of dentsu, dentsu international is made up of five leadership brands – Carat, dentsu X, iProspect, Dentsu Creative, Merkle, and supported by its specialist brands. dentsu international helps clients to win, keep and grow their best customers and achieve meaningful progress for their businesses. With best-in-class services and solutions in media, CXM and creative, dentsu international operates in over 145 markets worldwide with more than 45,000 dedicated specialists. www.dentsu.com

Merkle, a dentsu company, is a leading data-driven customer experience management (CXM) company that specializes in the delivery of unique, personalized customer experiences across platforms and devices. For more than 30 years, Fortune 1000 companies and leading nonprofit organizations have partnered with Merkle to maximize the value of their customer portfolios. The company's heritage in data, technology, and analytics forms the foundation for its unmatched skills in understanding consumer insights that drive hyper-personalized marketing strategies. Its combined strengths in consulting, creative, media, analytics, data, identity, CX/commerce, technology, and loyalty & promotions drive improved marketing results and competitive advantage. With more than 14,000 employees, Merkle is headquartered in Columbia, Maryland, with 50+ additional offices throughout the Americas, EMEA, and APAC. For more information, contact Merkle at 1-877-9-Merkle or visit www.merkle.com.

Extentia is a global technology services firm that helps clients transform and realize their digital strategies. With a unique Experience Centric Transformation approach, Extentia's solutions are focused on enterprise mobility, cloud computing, and user experience, Extentia's teams value the trust that clients place on them and strive to deliver confidence to their clients. The company's caring, exciting and growth-oriented culture inspires team members to "Do More. Be More". This long-term focus on building an institution, has rewarded Extentia with an ever-growing nucleus of long-tenured employees resulting in several multi-year client relationships. Extentia is headquartered in Pune, India and has grown to a team strength of over 800.

CONTACT: Sarah Bourdeau, [email protected]

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SOURCE Merkle