Crayon acquires Acquity business and assets from administrators

Administrators Resolve Partners told Research that Acquity went into voluntary administration on 1 June after receiving a VAT tax bill it “hadn’t accounted for”.

The deal to buy the firm’s business and assets was struck on 2 June, Resolve said. Thirty-four jobs have been saved by the acquisition.

The business has now been renamed Acquity Customer Insight Ltd and will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary of Crayon, while the original Acquity Ltd remains in administration.

‘New’ Acquity becomes Crayon’s data planning and analytics arm and managing director Richard Davies (pictured) will become part of the Crayon management. Founding director Andrew Higgs will take charge of the data planning and analytics team and commercial director Steve Reid will also take a management role at Crayon. Co-founder Barry Leeson-Earle, meanwhile, has been contracted as a consultant

Crayon senior partner Mark Runacus said: “This acquisition reinforces our unique position as a digital agency which places equal importance on creativity and analytics. We don’t believe there is any other agency in the marketplace that can offer such a powerful combination. Furthermore, this acquisition will also act as a springboard for investment in new data for digital products and in digital media.”