Blink. Rub your eyes. You didn't read wrong. You didn't stare at yesterday's eclipse through defective glasses. It's true.
Portent's in the process of being acquired.
Like an avowed bachelor, I swore I Would Never Sell. Then along came the perfect partner.
Welcome to Clearlink
Our soon-to-be parent company is called Clearlink. They’re a performance marketing company. Which is like calling a Tesla a nice little car.
Clearlink has built the ultimate performance-based marketing engine: They have millions of pages of great content, integrate that content with landing pages and PPC, and then have their own call centers to handle incoming calls without the typical marketing and sales wobbly-baton-hand-off.
In short, they get to own and optimize the whole funnel.
They represent brands like AT&T, State Farm, and Progressive.
Why they want us
Some of Clearlink's big clients want agency services. When the deal's done, we're going to help them provide those services. Which is why this acquisition makes sense on both sides.
This acquisition:
Is all about acquiring the Portent team
Does not include horrifying rounds of corporate purging
Does not require that I sell me and my team's collective soul
Gets us together with a great bunch of people
Gives us a lot more resources
Should wrap up in early September
The team:
Will still be the great team you're used to
Will keep doing the same work
Will grow
I:
Will still be here
May be speaking at more conferences
Will definitely be writing and teaching more
Put it all together, and you can see why I jumped at this opportunity. This isn't your typical acquisition.
I am…
Excited, nervous, thrilled, and philosophical all at once.
Philosophical because, after 22 years, this opens a new chapter for my team and me.
Thrilled to move the team into that new chapter.
Nervous about a very new direction for myself and my team.
But more than anything, I'm excited about what we're going to do together.
And, to repeat: I'm not going anywhere. My hope is to be our version of Bertram Cooper someday, hanging out in my office, offering sage bits of advice and, if I'm lucky, kicking the bucket at 100 years old while watching humanity land on Europa. You'll have to watch Mad Men to get the reference.
See you in the next blog post,
Ian
PS: We'll be slowly morphing Portent's brand, but not for a few months. You can continue to spam me at my address.