Right here’s some M&A in your Tuesday: Gersh has acquired You First, a number one international sports activities and leisure company.
With the acquisition, Gersh doubles its measurement to over 600 staff, establishes a worldwide footprint with 22 workplaces in 14 international locations, and positions itself as a participant in worldwide sports activities illustration. The objective can be to create new alternatives for shoppers throughout each sports activities and leisure, constructing on the strengths of every group. You First CEO and co-Founder, Juan Aísa, joins the board of Gersh and can proceed to run his firm from its headquarters in Madrid, Spain.
You First reps over 1,000 shoppers globally throughout a number of sports activities, with a powerful presence in soccer and basketball. Notables on the roster embrace Fabián Ruiz, Alexia Putellas, Milos Kerkez, Christoph Baumgartner, and Luis de la Fuente, to call only a few. Moreover, the company’s U.S. basketball division, Tandem, reps present and former NBA stars together with Desmond Bane, Jarrett Allen, Jeremy Sochan, Ray Allen, and Vince Carter.
Past repping international sporting expertise lively each on and off the sector, You First works intently with sports activities leagues and companies — similar to System 1, Wrexham FC, Samsung and Starbucks — to forge data-driven advertising and marketing campaigns that empower manufacturers to attach with followers by way of sports activities, leisure, social platforms and reside occasions.
The You First acquisition offers Gersh with a sturdy platform to develop into sports activities illustration and consulting. With the launch of its new sports activities division, Gersh Sports activities, the company will proceed its growth into new client-serving companies, which it started earlier this 12 months with the acquisition of the A3 Company’s Digital and Different departments. Led by managing associate Steve Gersh, Gersh Sports activities will unify the company’s sports activities initiatives and drive collaboration throughout its leisure and sports activities divisions.
Stated Steve Gersh on the acquisition, “Sports activities illustration is a pure subsequent step in our progress as we proceed to evolve the company. In buying You First, our strategic ambitions had been to discover a associate with international scale, a diversified and multi-sport follow, and robust administration. Juan and the You First staff convey all these attributes, and an ethos of steadfast client-centric advocacy that’s core to Gersh’s illustration practices.”
Acknowledged You First’s CEO, Aísa, “The partnership with Gersh strengthens our place within the business and permits us to supply even higher assist to our shoppers. Collectively, we’re constructing an ecosystem that goes past sports activities and leisure illustration to foster innovation and create new alternatives for international growth.”
Steve Stanford, head of technique for Gersh, added that “Gersh has at all times stuffed a singular area within the illustration panorama, and we need to develop the enterprise in methods that don’t come on the expense of what it does greatest: give attention to people and their ambitions.”