Agency.com nabs i-traffic for $15 million

Agency.com acquired i-traffic last month in a cash-and-stock deal valued at about $15 million, according to the company's Securities and Exchange filing.

Details of the acquisition were included in New York-based Agency.com's revised IPO prospectus, filed today. The Internet services company expects to go public later this month and trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol "ACOM."

Agency.com said it plans to offer 5.9 million shares of common stock, priced at between $10 and $12 per share. The price it pays for i-traffic, a direct marketing agency, will depend on pricing of the shares, the company said in its prospectus. The estimated $15 million deal includes a $3 million cash payment issued to i-traffic when the acquisition closed.

Underwriters include Goldman Sachs, Salomon Smith Barney, and Hambrecht & Quist.

In the prospectus, Agency.com said its five largest clients include British Airways, Compaq, FT Group, Sprint, and Unilever. For the first nine months of 1999, British Airways represented 13.5 percent of the firm's revenues.

Agency.com reported $30.4 million in revenue during the first six months of 1999 and posted $411,000 in net losses.

The company said it expects to use the money raised on its IPO to repay debt, expand operations, make strategic investments or acquisitions.

Agency.com's acquisitions over the past two years include the Primary Group in August 1998, Interactive Solutions and Eagle River Interactive in April; Digital Vision in May; Twinspark Interactive People in July; Interactive Traffic, known as i-traffic, last month; and Visionik earlier this month.

Agency.com employ more than 1,000 people in 10 offices in the United States and one office each in Amsterdam, Copenhagen, London, and Paris.