Globant Shakes the Creative and Tech Industries by acquiring GUT, Cannes Lions 2023's Independent Network of the Year
With this acquisition, Globant continues its journey of creating a powerful global creative tech organization ready for growth
After being a client for three years, Globant buys its own advertising agency in a golden and unique move
NEW YORK, Nov. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Globant (NYSE:GLOB), a digitally native company focused on reinventing businesses through innovative technology solutions, today announced the acquisition of a majority stake in GUT, an independent creative agency, to strengthen and grow Globant's creative capabilities. This acquisition will shape a partnership that will boost Globant's technology and creative offering, taking it to a new level, and support GUT's expansion to new markets and industries while leading the inception of technology into advertising.
"Technology and creativity have never been more closely linked than they are today," said Martin Migoya, Co-founder and CEO of Globant. "We always say that Globant is where innovation, design, and engineering meet scale, and we couldn't be more excited to bring the world's most creative marketing and communications company into the mix. With this acquisition, we will be able to offer a unique blend of top-notch technology and bold ideas to brands from the very beginning of the creative ideation process."
"We are thrilled to enter into this next chapter of our expansive growth powered by such an entrepreneurial and innovative partner as Globant, who will help us rapidly achieve the scale we've always dreamed about," said Anselmo Ramos, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT. "Our mission when we founded GUT was to be the most diverse, creative, and influential agency Network ever, so we know that this reinvention with Globant will only accelerate that goal to hopefully becoming our reality soon."
The five-year-old network has employees across seven offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Toronto, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Amsterdam. It has also attracted over 60 clients globally, including AB InBev, Mercado Libre, Google, Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, and Tim Hortons.
This year, GUT was named Cannes Lions Independent Network of the Year after winning 35 Lions, including 3 Grand Prix, 8 Golds, 12 Silvers, and 12 Bronzes across its Network. GUT Buenos Aires was also named both Cannes Lions Agency of the Year and Independent Agency of the Year in 2023. And this fall, Adweek named GUT the Breakthrough Agency of the Year, as well as GUT Buenos Aires office as the International Agency of the Year.
GUT will remain operating as fully independent as it does today, and GUT's leadership team will remain in place with a continued focus on building culture and driving growth. Both companies will work together identifying cross-selling opportunities and leveraging their unique skills to provide even more innovative solutions to their customers.
"Globant has been a trusted client for many years. We've done so many wonderful and successful things together as an agency and client, and now together, we know they will help us realize the dreams we've had since we were founded in 2018," said Gaston Bigio, Co-Founder and Creative Chairman of GUT. "Ultimately, we're excited to be part of the team that will propel us into the next phase of growth and success at GUT, and set us up for even more growth and success in the long term for our People and clients around the world."
"GUT and Globant share a solid culture, endless passion for supporting their clients, and a strong commitment to bravery, creativity, and innovation", said Martin Umaran, Co-Founder and Chief Corporate Development Officer of Globant. "In past years, Globant doubled-down on its inherent creative side of technology by adding marketing and advertising agencies such as Habitant, in Spain, Vertic, in Denmark, Ad_Bid, in Colombia, and KTBO, in Mexico. We have already merged these teams with Globant's own Digital Marketing and Digital Sales Studios to create a new end-to-end Studio Network with an agency approach enhanced with AI and diverse and talented professionals. GUT will play a critical role in being part of this Network", he added.
Both organizations are ranked among the top ten global organizations in their respective industries: Globant is the 8th strongest IT brand globally according to the latest Brand Finance report, and GUT is the most creative independent advertising network in the world according to Cannes 2023 Report – forming a powerful global creative tech company poised for even greater growth. Globant was also included by Fortune on its latest list of "100 Fastest-Growing Companies", ranked first among peers in the Information Technology Services category and recognized for its revenue, profit and stock return over the last three years.
About Globant
We are a digitally native company that helps organizations reinvent themselves and unleash their potential. We are where innovation, design, and engineering meet at scale.
- We have more than 27,500 employees and are present in 30 countries and five continents, working for companies like Google, Electronic Arts, and Santander, among others.
- We were named a Worldwide Leader in AI Services (2023) and Worldwide Leader in CX Improvement Services (2020) by IDC MarketScape report.
- We were also featured as a business case study at Harvard, MIT, and Stanford.
- We are active members of The Green Software Foundation (GSF) and the Cybersecurity Tech Accord.
Contact: [email protected]
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For more information, visit www.globant.com
About GUT
GUT is an award-winning Global Creative Network with offices in Miami, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Toronto, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and Amsterdam, created on the foundation of three essential values: Courage, Transparency, and above all, Intuition. Since its founding in 2018 by Anselmo Ramos and Gaston Bigio, GUT's strength has been to help brands generate a disproportionate amount of buzz, infiltrate pop culture, influence behaviors, create brand love long term, and ultimately help solve brands' biggest business challenges. The GUT Network has also won multiple accolades at the industry's most prestigious award shows, including at Cannes Lions 2023, where it won a total of 35 Lions (3 GPs, 8 Gold, 12 Silver and 12 Bronze), and became #1 Independent Network of the Year, LATAM Regional Network of the Year, and its GUT Buenos Aires office became both Independent Agency of the Year and Agency of the Year - a first for Argentina. More recently, GUT was named as Adweek's #1 Breakthrough Agency of the Year, and its Buenos Aires office was named as the #1 International Agency of the Year. Learn more at https://www.gut.agency
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The expectations related to the businesses of Globant and Gut may differ from their actual results and consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "believe," "may," "will", "estimate," "continue," "anticipate," "intend," "should," "plan," "expect," "predict," "potential," or the negative of these terms or other similar expressions. These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, expectations with respect to the anticipated benefits of this majority shareholding acquisition. These forward-looking statements involve significant risks and uncertainties that could cause the actual results to differ materially from the expected results. Most of these factors are outside of the control of Globant and Gut and are difficult to predict. Factors that may cause such differences include, but are not limited to: (1) the risk that disruption from the transaction materially and adversely affects Gut's business and operations; (2) Globant's ability to recognize the anticipated benefits of this majority shareholding acquisition, (3) costs related to this majority shareholding acquisition, (4) Globant's ability to successfully grow Gut's business; (5) potential adverse reactions or changes to business relationships resulting from the announcement and completion of this majority shareholding acquisition; (6) the ability of Globant to retain and hire key Gut employees; (7) changes in applicable laws or regulations, (8) the demand for Gut's services together with the possibility that Gut may be adversely affected by other economic, business, and/or competitive factors; and (9) other factors discussed under the heading "Risk Factors" in our most recent Form 20-F filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission and any other risk factors included in subsequent reports on Form 6-K. Because of these uncertainties, you should not make any investment decision based on these forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, we undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statements for any reason after the date of this press release whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.
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