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Imaginet LLC was founded in 1991, [1] as a NeXT Computer and Apple Computer publishing Value Added Reseller.
Its initial focus on digital printing was retooled by 1994 to become an early provider of web services, a move that attracted some big-name companies, including 3M, Target Corp, Pillsbury, and General Mills.
In 1997, Imaginet was sold to the 3M spinoff, Imation, [1] but the formal corporate culture and Imaginet's decidedly casual one were not a good fit. Within 18 months, the company turned private again. To become a private company, Founders Scott Litman and Dan Mallin partnered with Skip Gage to acquire the company from Imation and spin it out as a private entity. Along the way, Imaginet acquired the assets of the Gage Interactive Marketing Group.
As a private company, Imaginet, LLC flourished in 1999 and 2000, rapidly growing into a regional leader in eServices. The focus of the business was the delivery of web applications that provided personalized and relevant communication to their audiences. Customers included the St. Paul Companies, RBC Dain Rauscher, Cargill, Goodyear, Medtronic, United Health, Lawson Software, Express-Scripts, and Thomson West.
The business was sold once again in the final days of 2000 to WPP Group, where it became a part of J. Walter Thompson (JWT), one of the world's oldest and largest traditional ad agencies. [2] [3] Post sale, Imagnet, took over the JWT owned entity Cool Fire Interactive and in a move that saved many jobs as the dot com bubble burst that year, replaced Cool Fire's staff with Imaginet employees. Imaginet was rebranded into the RMG Connect international network under JWT.
In January 2010, RMG Connect was dissolved and merged with JWT. The office is now known as JWT Minneapolis.
GlassBridge Enterprises, Inc., formerly Imation Corporation, is an American holding company. Through its subsidiary, Glassbridge focuses primarily on investment and asset management. Prior to the name change, Glassbridge had three core elements: traditional storage, secure and scalable storage and what the company calls "audio and video information" products.
WPP plc is a British multinational communications, advertising, public relations, technology, and commerce holding company headquartered in London, England. It was the world's largest advertising company, as of 2019. WPP plc owns many companies, which include advertising, public relations, media, and market research networks such as AKQA, BCW, CMI Media Group, Essence Global, Finsbury, Grey, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Mindshare, Ogilvy, Wavemaker, Wunderman Thompson, and VMLY&R. It is one of the "Big Four" agency companies, alongside Publicis, The Interpublic Group of Companies, and Omnicom Group. WPP has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index.
Nielsen Holdings plc is an American information, data and market measurement firm. Nielsen operates in over 100 countries and employs approximately 44,000 people worldwide.
TDK Corporation is a Japanese multinational electronics corporation that manufactures electronic components and recording and data-storage media. Its motto is "Contribute to culture and industry through creativity".
Memorex Corp. began as a computer tape producer and expanded to become both a consumer media supplier and a major IBM plug compatible peripheral supplier. It was broken up and ceased to exist after 1996 other than as a consumer electronics brand specializing in disk recordable media for CD and DVD drives, flash memory, computer accessories and other electronics.
James Walter Thompson was the founder of the J. Walter Thompson advertising agency and a pioneer of many advertising techniques.
J. Walter Thompson (JWT) was an advertisement holding company incorporated in 1896 by American advertising pioneer James Walter Thompson. The company was acquired in 1987 by multinational holding company WPP plc, and in November 2018, WPP merged J. Walter Thompson with fellow agency Wunderman to form Wunderman Thompson.
FILM Ferrania s.r.l. is a photographic film manufacturing company located in Ferrania (Liguria), Italy. Ferrania was founded in 1923 as a maker of photographic film, papers, and photographic equipment, including cameras. The company was purchased in 1964 by the 3M company to become Ferrania 3M, until it was spun off in 1996 to 3M's Imation division. In 1999, Ferrania was acquired by Schroder Ventures and then spun off as a separate company. Subsequently, it was acquired by a Genoese shipping company, Gruppo Messina who ceased photographic activities in 2009.
Hill+Knowlton Strategies is an American global public relations consulting company, headquartered in New York City, United States, with over 80 offices in more than 40 countries. The company was founded in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1927 by John W. Hill and has been led since 2019 It is owned by the WPP Group.
Grey Group is a global advertising and marketing agency with headquarters in New York City, and 432 offices in 96 countries, operating in 154 cities. It is organized into four geographical units: North America; Europe, Middle East & Africa, Asia-Pacific and Latin America.
Say Media is a technology and advertising firm. The company provides a publishing platform (Tempest) to professional publishers and sells advertising across that platform and extended network of sites. Say Media has offices in San Francisco, Portland, NY, London, Montreal, Toronto, Chicago, and Detroit and is privately held.
SouthPeak Interactive Corporation, doing business as SouthPeak Games, was an American video game publisher based in Midlothian, Virginia. Founded on March 1, 1996, as a subsidiary of SAS Institute in Cary, North Carolina, it was sold and moved to Midlothian, Virginia in 2000, and became a public company in 2008. Also in 2008, the company acquired and closed Austin, Texas-based publisher Gamecock Media Group, and opened a separate digital distribution subsidiary 7Sixty in Grapevine, Texas in 2011. SouthPeak Games quietly disappeared from the public eye in July 2013.
Kantar Group is a global data, insights, and consulting company based in London, England. It was founded in 1992, and has approximately 30,000 employees in over 90 countries working in various research disciplines, including brand guidance, brand strategy, social media monitoring, advertising effectiveness, consumer and shopper behaviour, and public opinion.
Eric Austin Litman is an American entrepreneur and angel investor, and currently serves as CEO of the robotics health technology company, aescape, inc. Litman co-founded Proxicom, built Viaduct from a one-man shop through a merger with the Wolf Group, and was the founder and CEO of Medialets, a mobile ad serving and advertising analytics company acquired by WPP plc.
Mindshare is a global media and marketing services company formed in 1997. As one of the world's largest media agencies, Mindshare is responsible for a large majority of GroupM/WPP's global marketing billings and campaigns.
Bates CHI & Partners is an advertising and marketing agency and a member of the WPP Group.
Superunion is a global brand and design consultancy, headquartered in London. It is a wholly-owned subsidiary of WPP. Superunion was formed after five agencies merged in January 2018, and employs 500 people across 16 offices.
Dan Mallin is a Minnesota entrepreneur, Co-Founder and Managing Partner of Magnet 360, Co-Founder of The Minnesota Cup, Entrepreneur-in-Residence of the Gary S. Holmes Center for Entrepreneurship at the Carlson School of Management, and a Board Member of various organizations.
24/7 Media, formerly 24/7 Real Media is a technology company headquartered in New York City and 20 offices in 12 countries, specializing in Digital Marketing. It provides for publishers, advertisers and agencies globally. It was formerly listed as "TFSM" on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The company was purchased by WPP plc in 2007 for $649 million. David J. Moore is the chairman, founder and CEO. He also served as chairman of the Interactive Advertising Bureau. In December, 2013, 24/7 Media announced it would merge with GroupM subsidiary, Xaxis.
Xura, Inc. , previously known as Comverse, Inc., was a technology company headquartered in Wakefield, Massachusetts, United States, in existence from 2013 to 2017, that offered a portfolio of digital services which enabled global communications across a variety of mobile devices and platforms. Xura marketed and sold to communications service providers (CSPs) and to enterprises.