S4 Capital combines MediaMonks and Firewood in a $150 million deal

S4 Capital has announced the merger of MediaMonks and Silicon Valley’s largest digital marketing agency, Firewood in a $150 million deal. Founded in 2010 by Juan and Lanya Zambrano, Firewood offers a broad range of digital capabilities including creative, strategy and planning, performance media and technology services and is headquartered in San Francisco.

Firewood is a leading proponent of the “embedded” model of client partnership, a deeply collaborative way of working with clients to deliver on speed, quality and value.

Firewood also has clients such as Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Salesforce and VMware

Sir Martin Sorrell, Senior Monk and Executive Chairman of S4Capital said “This merger is a further step in creating a new era communications services leader. Firewood has an enviable client list comprising many of Silicon Valley’s finest; and we are delighted to welcome Juan, Layna and their colleagues to the S4Capital family. We will now have over 1,800 professionals in 23 countries, with over 500 in each of two nodes, one in Silicon Valley and one in Amsterdam.”

Wesley ter Haar, Founding Monk and COO of MediaMonks said “Firewood’s “embedded” approach will allow us to build deeper and broader relationships with our clients, helping us work in a more flexible, collaborative and integrated way.

Layna Zambrano, Founder and President of Firewood commented "This merger is recognition of all our people. The richness of our differences creates our collective value. We embrace finding diverse talent; as a certified Women/Minority-owned Business Enterprise, 38% of our employees are from diverse ethnic backgrounds, 67% are women, and our leadership team is comprised of nearly 64% women.  We look forward to developing further a new, disruptive model in the communications industry with MediaMonks and S4Capital as further proof that diversity is an intrinsic part of our industry’s future.”

Juan Zambrano, Founder and CEO of Firewood commented “We came from the client world and had a very different and non-agency mindset.  From day one, we created an integrated and disruptive model built on transparency and collaboration that supported becoming extensions of our clients and something that other agencies weren’t doing. We are delighted to be teaming up with MediaMonks and joining the S4Capital platform. We believe this is an exciting next step for our clients and colleagues and we look forward to continued growth and success.