Acceleration Community of Cos. added to its coterie of creative agencies this fall with the acquisition of New York City communications firm DKC.
Century City-based ACC and its majority shareholder, Solace Capital, also brought on board New York equity firm Verance Capital as a strategic investor to drive the firm’s next phase of growth. DKC, formed in 1991, is among the top 10 independent PR agencies in the U.S., according to ACC founder Michael Nyman.
“I thought it was time to make a move in the category of public relations and communications. We were very fortunate. I’d known these guys reputationally for several years and felt they had a depth of knowledge and proof of concept,” Nyman said. “They have great clients. When you look at our ability to extend their current services and their own client relationships and provide other services, it just really seemed like a great win-win.”
As its name suggests, ACC functions generally as a holding company for a wide variety of individual firms in the advertising, marketing and public relations sphere. The intent when he formed ACC, Nyman explained, was to foster a non-hierarchal collective of related companies that would make it a one-stop shop for clients.
“What I saw was thousands of agencies, many of which were specialists,” he added, “and I thought if I can identify these agencies that are specialists that were at the right age and stage and had similar values and visions and I could provide a new vision of a holding company model and create an architecture structure to create an environment where we could live and breathe together, that would be pretty cool.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed. DKC’s clients include TikTok, BMW, Airbnb, Indeed, Clear, Delta Air Lines, the National Basketball Association and Match Group.
On top of its bevy of public relations and crisis communications, DKC’s HangarFour division offers content creation, social media strategy, design services, influencer relations and brand activations.
“By joining the ACC community, we will be able to increase the value we offer clients by providing access to a broader range of marketing and communications capabilities,” said DKC Chief Executive Sean Cassidy in a statement. “Brands and individuals expect their communications partners to tell their stories to ever-evolving target audiences across a full range of platforms 24 hours a day, seven days a week.”
This acquisition follows that of emerging brand marketing firm Trailblaze last year and performance-minded influencer marketing agency Pixly in 2022.
“We are thrilled to support the continued growth of ACC and its market-leading platform,” said Christopher Brothers, managing partner of the Sawtelle-based Solace Capital Partners, in a statement. “DKC has established itself as a premier, full-service strategic communications firm by providing some of the world’s leading brands, artists, and events with impeccable execution, pressure-tested advisory, and media relations services. We also welcome Verance Capital as a strategic investor and look forward to ACC unleashing the full power of its platform to reach even greater heights.”
A mergers and acquisition team from Westwood law firm Michelman & Robinson LLP represented ACC in the transaction.
