| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Industry | Digital marketing |
| Founded | Amsterdam (August 1987) |
| Headquarters | Amsterdam, NL |
| Key people | Luke Taylor, CEO Fred Mulder, Chairman Chris Clarke, CCO Lyndsay Menzies, CMO Lorenzo Wood, CTO |
| Revenue | 250 Million USD |
| Website | www.lbi.com |
LBi is an international, full-service digital marketing agency[1] formed by the merger of LB Icon and Framfab in August 2006, then remodelled after the merger with bigmouthmedia in 2010. It is listed on Euronext in Amsterdam. From 2006 until the bigmouthmedia merger in 2010 LBi was a dual-listed company with shares also available on the OMX Nordic Exchange in Stockholm (symbol: LBI)[2]. LB is an acronym for Lost Boys, Icon was formerly named Icon Medialab, Framfab was Framtidsfabriken - the Future Factory.
The company has over 1,900 employees located primarily in the major European and American business centers: Abu Dhabi, Amsterdam, Atlanta, Berlin, Brussels, Copenhagen, Cologne, Edinburgh, Exeter, Ghent, Hamburg, London, Madrid, Milan, Mumbai, Munich, New York, Malmö, Stockholm and Zurich. As of 2011, clients include: ABN Amro, BT, Barclays Capital, Canon, Confused, British Airways, Autoglass, Sony, Thomas Cook and Volvo.
One of the three current New York city offices became part of the LBi group of companies after merging with IconMedialab in the 1990s. This was previously Tom Nicholson Associates, a company started by Thomas J Nicholson in 1987.[3] It is located in the historic Puck Building on the corner of Lafayette and Houston.
The Atlanta office is led by Joe Schab and became part of LBi upon the acquisition of Creative Digital Group in 2007.[4]
In January 2008, LBi acquired specialist search optimisation company Netrank in a move to boost its search capabilities. The agency beat WPP Group and a second undisclosed bidder to buy the agency.
In April 2008, LBi bought social media agency Special Ops for $45m [5]. Special Ops co-founders, Jason Klein and Christian Anthony, were both exited from LBi in a management restructure late in 2010. [6]
On the 1st of August, 2010, LBi was absorbed by Obtineo. [7] and the company delisted from the Swedish stock exchange. Obtineo was composed of digital agency bigmouthmedia and €50m of new investment from the Carlyle Group, Cyrte and Janivo. [8] On the same date, Obtineo rebranded as LBi.
In January 2011, the Managing Director of bigmouthmedia UK, Phil Gripton, expanded his role to become the MD of LBi UK and bigmouthmedia UK. His dual role appointment marked a focus of the combined bigmouthmedia-LBi on digital marketing.[9]
In November of 2011, LBi announced the acquisition of youth marketing and social media agency Mr Youth in a deal valued at $40 to $50 Million. [10]