Talk:Razorfish (company)

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Request to bring this article up-to-date

Hello, I'm working on behalf of Razorfish to update this article. There have been recent changes to the leadership and structure of the company that should be reflected on this page to keep it up-to-date. As a Razorfish employee I have a clear conflict of interest in making updates to this article myself, however my hope is that the information I'm proposing is neutral and well-sourced and can provide a good starting point for maintaining this page as current. My proposed changes are noted below. As this is my first time editing posts, any and all feedback from the community is appreciated.

Razorfish is a global digital marketing agency that offers transformative business solutions including strategic consulting, experience design, brand building, technology platforms, data services, retail/commerce and media services.

Razorfish is owned by Paris-based Publicis Groupe and is part of the Publicis.Sapient Platform, along with DigitasLBi and SapientNitro.

Razorfish is headquartered in New York City, with U.S. offices in Atlanta, Austin, Chicago, Dayton, Denver, Detroit, Los Angeles, Portland, San Francisco and Seattle. Razorfish operates internationally in Toronto, Berlin, Frankfurt, London, Milan, Munich, Nancy, Paris, Turin. Asia Pacific offices include Bengaluru, Beijing, Gurgaon, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Sydney and Wuhan.

KEY PEOPLE: Shannon Denton: Global Chief Executive Officer Daniel Bonner: Chief Creative Officer Ray Velez: Chief Technology Officer Pete Shanley: Chief Financial Officer Samih Fadli: Chief Intelligence Officer William Lidstone: Chief Marketing Officer Nigel Adams: Chief Talent Officer Patrick Frend, East Region President Deb Boyda, Central Region President Jennifer Friese, West Region President

SERVICES: Strategy and consulting, Creative and UX, Technology, Media and Content, Data Sciences

Number of Employees: 4,000+

HISTORY: Beginnings

In 1995, Razorfish was founded in New York by childhood friends Craig Kanarick and Jeff Dachis. The company was originally headquartered at Jeff's apartment in Alphabet City in Manhattan, where they began to do freelance web design work. Razorfish’s creation of Blue Dot, an online art gallery using Macromedia’s Shockwave software garnered the attention of Omnicom Group. The holding company purchased a stake in Razorfish, allowing them to move operations to a loft in SoHo. Their first major project was a $20,000 assignment to create a small website for the New York Botanical Society, commissioned by Time Warner's Pathfinder business unit.[1]

Acquisitions & History In January 1998, Razorfish made its first of what was to be many acquisitions, by purchasing Avalanche Systems, doubling its staff and increasing revenue by 400%. In 1998, Razorfish also acquired Plastic in San Francisco [2], London-based CHBi[3], and Los Angeles-based <tag> media and then merged with Scandinavian interactive leader, Spray, which had offices in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany, giving the company a European presence. [4]

In April 1999, the company had an IPO which raised $48 million at $16 per share. [5]

Razorfish then acquired International Integration, Inc. (I-Cube) in 1999,[6] a Boston-based company founded by Sundar Subramaniam and John J. Donovan for $1.2 billion, its largest deal to date. The company's sales for 1999 topped $170 million.

In May 2000, Razorfish announced the launch of Intervision-Razorfish, a joint venture based in Tokyo. [7]

Acquisition by SBI Razorfish was taken private by SBI Group (formerly SBI and Company) in 2003[8] and was renamed to SBI.Razorfish. SBI also purchased other assets from "The Fast Five," including Scient/iXL, MarchFirst (formerly USWeb and CKS Group), Emerald Solutions, Lante, and Xcelerate.

Acquisition by aQuantive The company was again renamed as Avenue A | Razorfish when the SBI.Razorfish division of the SBI Group (formerly SBI and Company) was acquired by aQuantive in 2004. The Avenue A | Razorfish combination in 2004 resulted in an interactive agency which according to Ad Age had the highest interactive revenue in the USA in 2005, at $189.8 million.[9]

Acquisition by Microsoft Microsoft announced on May 18, 2007 its intention to acquire Avenue A | Razorfish as part of a $6.0 billion cash purchase of parent company aQuantive. The transaction closed on August 10, 2007. Razorfish continued to function as an independent company as part of Microsoft Advertising, run by Brian McAndrews, formerly CEO of aQuantive, who reported directly to the president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division. On October 20, 2008, the company decided to be known as Razorfish, dropping the Avenue A brand. In June 2009, it was reported that Microsoft had put the company up for sale. [10]

Acquisition by Publicis Groupe Microsoft had earlier in June 2009 notified the markets of its intention to sell Razorfish, which many believed conflicted with Microsoft Advertising's main operations that sell advertising technology services to rival agencies.[11] On August 9, Paris-based holding company Publicis Groupe agreed to acquire Razorfish from Microsoft for USD $530 million in cash and shares, which in turn gave Microsoft a 3% equity stake in Publicis Groupe.[12] [6] Clark Kokich had served as CEO of the company since July 2007; however, in April 2008, Bob Lord was named the new CEO, while Kokich took on the newly formed role of Chairman. In July 2013, Pete Stein was promoted to the role of Global CEO. Stein had been part of the executive leadership team for five years. [13]

In 2014, Publicis Groupe digital shops Razorfish, Rosetta, LEVEL Studios and the digital arms of Nurun (in Quebec, Toronto, Atlanta, Nancy, France and Turin, Italy) were combined under a new business unit called Razorfish Global, of which Tom Adamski was appointed chief executive officer of the global network. Adamski passed away in October 2015.

Shannon Denton, who had previously served in the roles of North America Chief Executive and Central Region President of Razorfish, assumed the role of as Global CEO in 2015. [14]

Global offices North America United States: Razorfish Canada: Razorfish Europe Germany: Razorfish UK: Razorfish Asia-Pacific Australia: Razorfish China: Razorfish Hong Kong: Razorfish India: Razorfish

Citations:

1) http://www.fundinguniverse.com/company-histories/razorfish-inc-history/ 2) http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/news/date/9902/e990205.htm 3) http://www.bloomberg.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=13479222 4) https://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/1694689/razorfish-merges-europes-spray-network 5) www.company-histories.com/Razorfish-Inc-Company-History.html 6) http://www.wired.com/2000/09/razorfish/ 7) http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising/razorfish-joint-venture-renamed-56154 8) http://www.thefreelibrary.com/SBI+and+Company+Completes+Acquisition+of+Razorfish,+Inc.-a098244372 9) http://adage.com/help/datacenter?msg=You+must+be+a+DataCenter+Subscriber+to+access+this+file 10) http://www.cnet.com/news/report-microsoft-to-cut-razorfish-loose/ 11) http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB124982318328817501 12) http://www.cbsnews.com/news/the-dot-com-kids/ 13) http://www.dmnews.com/agency/razorfish-names-bob-lord-ceo-kokich-to-become-chairman/article/131140/ 14) http://adage.com/article/agency-news/razorfish-global-ceo-tom-adamski-passes/300966/Annie at Razorfish (talk) 18:32, 7 June 2016 (UTC)

Annie at Razorfish (talk) 20:24, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

I may examine and compare this soon and see what needs to be added and what not, because there are some things that cannot be added such as the "services" section. SwisterTwister talk 21:10, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

- Added note to my personal talk page: we'd like to get the key people section of this page updated soon as the person listed as global CEO (Tom Adamski) passed away in October of 2015. Annie at Razorfish (talk) 22:15, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Ah, yes, hello again; I have taken care of the important part so far and that is, about Tom Adamski. I will continue looking through the other information and sources. SwisterTwister talk 22:21, 11 July 2016 (UTC)

Thank you for making the update, I really appreciate it. Is there anything additional I can provide to get the rest of the key people section updated? In addition to Tom Adamski, some of the people referenced on the current page are no longer with the company or have new titles. For reference - here are the updates that need to be made: KEY PEOPLE: Shannon Denton: Global Chief Executive Officer, Daniel Bonner: Chief Creative Officer, Ray Velez: Chief Technology Officer, Pete Shanley: Chief Financial Officer, Samih Fadli: Chief Intelligence Officer, William Lidstone: Chief Marketing Officer, Nigel Adams: Chief Talent Officer, Patrick Frend, East Region President, Deb Boyda, Central Region President, Jennifer Friese, West Region President. Thanks Annie at Razorfish (talk) 17:39, 12 July 2016 (UTC)

See Wikipedia:Edit requests for general information on making edit requests.

Wikipedia is not a vehicle for advertising per WP:NOTADVERTISING. To avoid such problems, a rule-of-thumb is to provide third-party sources for all topics mentioned in an article. Basic facts can be verified using other types of sources when it is clear that the material is clearly encyclopedic in nature. A good way to provide access to the type of information you're requesting is to identify a business profile written by a third party that could be used as a reference or an external link. --Ronz (talk) 19:07, 12 July 2016 (UTC)