Razorfish Inc. (formerly Avenue A | Razorfish) is one of the world's largest[1] interactive agencies. Razorfish provides services including digital advertising and content creation, media buying, strategic counsel, analytics, technology and user experience.[2] In May 2007, Razorfish was bought by Microsoft as part of its acquisition of Razorfish's parent company aQuantive Inc., in a deal valued at $6 billion, but continued to function as an independent company. In June 2009, it was reported that Microsoft had put the company up for sale.[3] On August 9, 2009, Microsoft sold the firm to Publicis Groupe[4] for $530M in cash and stock.
Razorfish has more than 2,000 employees worldwide, with U.S. offices in New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Portland, Los Angeles, Atlanta, and Austin. In 2005–2007, it expanded overseas through acquisitions in London,[5] Paris,[6] Sydney, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Beijing, Berlin, Frankfurt,[7] Singapore and a joint venture in Tokyo.[8]
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Razorfish was founded in New York in 1995 by Craig Kanarick and Jeff Dachis with the motto "Solutions to Hard Problems." and was originally headquartered at Jeff's apartment in Alphabet City in Manhattan. A few months later, they moved in to an office at 580 Broadway with three other employees. Their first project was to build a website for the New York Botanical Garden, which was paid for by Time Warner, from the Time Warner Book Series division. They were one of the first companies to have an animated homepage, utilizing the "server-push" capabilities of the latest version of the Netscape browser. Because of this and aggressive marketing tactics, their work became well known, well-respected, and the firm grew quickly over the next few years. Soon thereafter, they received a strategic investment from Omnicom (along with other New Media pioneers, Agency.com, Red Sky Interactive, Think New Ideas and Organic), making them one of the first firms to be financed by a traditional media holding company. Razorfish used this money to move to new offices, redesign their branding (to include the slogan "Everything that can be digital will be.") and expand operations. It and other New York-based Web design companies formed the core of a cluster of New Media companies known as Silicon Alley. In January 1998, Razorfish made its first of what was to be many acquisitions, by purchasing Avalanche Systems. In 1998, Razorfish acquired Plastic in San Francisco, and London-based CHBi, and Los Angeles-based <tag> media and then merged with Scandinavian interactive leader, Spray, which had offices in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany, making the company a true international player.
In April 1999, the company had an IPO which raised $48 million at $16 per share.
In Fall 1999, Razorfish acquired International Integration Inc (I-Cube),[9] a Boston based company founded by John J. Donovan.
At its peak, the company had $260 M in annual revenue, and a market capitalization of over $6 billion. Its early success led it to be included in what the industry dubbed "The Fast Five," a group of "e-consultancies" that also included Scient, Viant, iXL and USWeb/CKS, which was bought and rebranded MarchFirst. The "Fast Five" was affected negatively by the downturn in the Dot-com bubble which began in 2000, and Razorfish saw its revenues plunge to $50.1 million during that year. In February 2001, Razorfish laid off 400 employees, roughly 20 percent of its staff, with its stock price descending from a February 2000 high of $57 to just $1 per share.
Razorfish, Inc. was eventually acquired by SBI Group (formerly SBI and Company) in 2003 it was renamed to SBI.Razorfish. The company was again renamed as Avenue A | Razorfish when the SBI.Razorfish division of the SBI Group (formerly SBI and Company) was acquired by aQuantive, Inc in 2004. SBI also purchased other assets from "The Fast Five," including Scient/iXL, MarchFirst (formerly USWeb & CKS Group), Emerald Solutions, Lante, and Xcelerate.
The Avenue A | Razorfish combination in 2004 resulted in an interactive agency which according to Ad Age had the highest interactive revenue in the US in 2005, at $189.8 million.[10]
Microsoft announced on May 18, 2007 its intention to acquire Avenue A | Razorfish as part of a $6.0 billion cash purchase of parent company aQuantive.[11] The transaction closed on August 10, 2007. Razorfish was in the past a part of Microsoft Advertising which is run by Brian McAndrews, formerly CEO of aQuantive, who reports directly to the president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division (PSD). On October 20, 2008, the company decided to be known as Razorfish, dropping the Avenue A brand.
Microsoft had earlier in June 2009 notified the markets of its intention to sell Razorfish, which many believed conflicted with Microsoft Advertising's main operations that sell advertising technology services to rival agencies.[12] On August 9, Paris-based holding company Publicis Groupe SA agreed to acquire Razorfish from Microsoft for USD $530 million in cash and shares, which in turn gave Microsoft a 3% equity stake in Publicis Groupe.[13]
In 2008, Razorfish won over 75 creative awards including 10 Webbys, 16 WebAwards, 3 OMMAs, 2 ADDYs, and 3 Create Awards.[14] The Nike “Sweet Spots” campaign produced by Duke, a Razorfish Company (located in France), was recognized on the 2008 Cannes Cyberlions shortlist.[15] Also, Razorfish’s Chief Strategy Office Jeff Lanctot, was named for the second consecutive year to the Mediaweek 50, a list of the country’s top media executives.[16] Forrester Research cited the company as a leader in “The Forrester Wave: Interactive Marketing Agencies” report published in December 2007.[17] Ad Age named (then) Avenue A | Razorfish 2005 media agency of the year. Forrester Research ranked it as a top-tier web design agency in its 2006 Web Design Agency Shootout. Its work for Mercedes-AMG won the 2006 Webby Award for Best Automotive Site, and its redesign of NYTimes.com has garnered a 2007 Webby for Best Newspaper Site.[18] In 2010 Razorfish was awarded Top Value Added Partner by Adobe for Razorfish's work in the Enterprise Partner Program for Omniture technology.