In a deal expected to close July 19, 33-year-old San Diego marketing firm Chapman Warwick will be purchased by a San Francisco company.
The Corsi Agency bought Chapman from New York City-based Warwick Baker O’Neill for an undisclosed amount. Warwick Baker O’Neill was also recently sold.
The local firm will now be called Corsi Chapman Warwick. The Corsi Agency is in the midst of changing its name to The Corsi Group, said Marc Corsi, the company’s chief executive officer and chairman. Corsi was founded in 1988.
Already pitching clients together, the merging companies have already won some significant new business, said Julie Lehman, Corsi’s vice president and director of public relations.
She said it would soon be announced.
Nancy Higgins, president of Chapman Warwick, was not available for comment.
Higgins will continue as president of the local firm, Lehman said.
Negotiations took about six months, but the agencies had been talking for about a year, Lehman said.
Information on Chapman Warwick’s past billings for last year was not available at press time.
With its three current offices and 90 employees, Corsi has capitalized billings of about $100 million each year, Lehman said.
“It’ll significantly spiff up the whole thing for everybody,” Lehman said. “It gives us strength and numbers and expanded capabilities and that’s where it is these days.”
She said that Corsi was inspired to enter the San Diego market because of its similarity to industries in which Corsi already considers itself strong: the Internet, financial services, insurance, telecommunications and hospitality.
Corsi and Chapman were similar to each other in their philosophies and approaches, Lehman said.
This is Corsi’s third acquisition in two years.
Corsi had bought Carter Israel in the Silicon Valley about 3 & #733; months ago, and James Coari & Associates in Walnut Creek, Calif., a year and a half before that.
Corsi plans to buy other agencies in California, Lehman said.
Another acquisition will be announced next fall or winter, she said.
