Dorland Global bought by U.K. firm
The sale of the Phila.-based ad agency, which has some big drugmaker clients, was worth $20.7 million, which could go up.
Dorland Global Corp., a Philadelphia advertising and public relations agency that specializes in health care, said yesterday that it has been purchased by Huntsworth P.L.C., a British public relations firm.
The sale was a response to the increasingly global nature of the pharmaceutical business, which accounts for the bulk of Dorland's clients, said Rita Sweeney, the agency's president and chief operating officer.
The largest pharmaceutical companies operate globally now, and, increasingly, they treat public relations and advertising as global rather than regional responsibilities, said Sweeney and David Rowley, chief executive officer of Huntsworth.
"We need to do more things globally," Sweeney said. "We've got to move fast."
Huntsworth paid $20.7 million, but the price may rise to as much as $50 million, based on Dorland's 2007 profit.
Dorland, founded in 1971 by Rita Sweeney and her husband, Harry, has 150 employees in Philadelphia and San Francisco. It counts GlaxoSmithKline P.L.C. and Centocor Inc. among its clients. In 2006, it had a pretax profit of $3.5 million, according to Huntsworth.
It will become part of Huntsworth's health-care division, which has 110 employees in the United Kingdom. The company, based in London, has more than 1,600 employees in 30 countries.
Rowley said Dorland would keep its name and management team. "There will absolutely not, categorically not, be any job losses," he said. The company will add a New York office.
The new ownership will give Dorland a better shot at luring global clients, Rowley said. And it will allow both firms to expand in public affairs and interactive communication.