Al Ahli Group acquires US based social media company theAudience
Al Ahli Group acquires US based social media company theAudience
Oliver Luckett during an interview with TheWrap
UAE based conglomerate Al Ahli
Holding Group has acquired theAudience, a social-media and digital content
marketing agency based in Los Angeles.
The deal is an unusual one in that it is not
often that corporates from the Arab region acquire startups from
the US or Europe – usually it’s the other way around.
theAudience was founded by Oliver Luckett back
in 2011, along with founding Facebook
president Sean Parker and Ari Emanuel, co-CEO of William
Morris Endeavor.
Al Ahli is not disclosing terms of the sale but
said in a statement that theAudience will help it create new
direct-to-consumer media services across its holding
companies.
It plans to use theAudience as “a connective tissue” across the
30 companies in its portfolio, which span live events, media
production, sports and fitness, lifestyle and consumer products, as
well as other sectors including real estate,
construction, and trading, technology and logistics.
“Acquiring theAudience is in line with our
long-term global diversification plan and will be key to the
international expansion of our rapidly growing lifestyle,
entertainment and digital-media portfolio,” said Al Ahli CEO
Mohammed Khammas said in a statement.
Luckett, who signed a five year deal to remain
CEO, said theAudience would act as a franchise manager for various
Al Ahli businesses in the social media realm. He added that
theAudience would have “substantial” financing from Al Ahli to
build the careers of digital artists and underground music
stars.
“We don’t want to be managers per se, but we
want to fund artists and back them like a studio would,” Luckett
said, as reported by the New York Times.
theAudience, now with 75 employees, has grown to
syndicate more than 5,000 pieces of branded content each month to
more than one billion consumers, through its network of more than
6,000 celebrities and influencers.
For each client, theAudience works to build a
network of fans across Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus
and keep them engaged by posting a steady stream of catchy
pictures, comments and videos.
Luckett’s previous ventures included DigiSynd, a
digital marketing and syndication startup, which was acquired by
Walt Disney Co. in 2008.
William Morris Endeavor owned about a quarter of
theAudience; other investors included Sean Parker, the Napster
co-founder and early Facebook executive, and Guggenheim
Media.
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