Category: News

JEGI CLARITY and Leonis Partners Announce Strategic Combination to Form Elite Global M&A Advisory Firm

NEW YORK, NY / London, UK, March 10, 2025 – JEGI CLARITY, a leading M&A advisory firm with a 37-year history serving the media, marketing, information, and legal market sectors, and Leonis Partners, a premier 12-year-old advisory firm specializing in software, fintech, and technology transactions, announced today the signing of a definitive agreement to combine the two companies in a strategic transaction (the “Transaction”). Upon closing, the combined firm, JEGI CLARITY LEONIS (“JCL”), will create a powerhouse platform for M&A and private capital markets capabilities, serving the dynamic and evolving global economy.

The Transaction unites two firms with complementary strengths, expanding sector coverage, deepening transaction expertise, and enhancing global reach. JCL will be headquartered in New York and London, with a team of 100 professionals worldwide, including a substantial presence in Sydney and Boston. Collectively, the firms closed 35 transactions in 2024, approaching $5 billion in deal volume with six transactions closed YTD through February 28, 2025.

In North America, JCL will be co-led by Robert Koven, Founder & Managing Partner of Leonis Partners, and Scott Mozarsky, a Managing Director at JEGI CLARITY, as Co-CEOs, with Doug Stowe serving as President & COO. Wilma Jordan, Founder & CEO of JEGI CLARITY, will assume the role of Executive Chair, North America. In Europe, JCL will be co-led by Marcus Anselm, San Datta, Jonathan Davis, Robert Koven and Richard Vaughan and Asia Pacific will be led by Ben Tolley.

The global leadership team is dedicated to maintaining the client- centric, best-practice approach that has defined both firms’ legacies. “This transaction brings together two firms with exceptional reputations, complementary expertise, and a shared commitment to delivering outstanding results for our clients,” said Wilma Jordan. “We are grateful to the clients we’ve had the privilege to serve, whose trust has fueled our success. By blending our firm’s deep-rooted experience with Leonis’ fresh, innovative perspective and its strength in software and technology, we are future-proofing our business for the decades ahead, with the combined scale, sector depth, and global reach to deliver an unparalleled advisory platform.”

Robert Koven added, “JEGI CLARITY’s legacy and industry leadership are second to none. Over months of planning, it became evident that our firms share a culture of excellence, integrity, and client-first values. By combining our expertise, we create an even stronger platform with broader industry coverage and deeper market insights, ensuring superior outcomes for our clients.”

JCL will focus on transactions ranging from $50 million to $500 million, while maintaining the capacity to manage deals that fall outside of this spectrum. The firm’s expanded sector expertise includes tech-enabled business services, legal tech and services, information, marketing, media, software, payments, telecom, and technology, reflecting the growing convergence of technology and services across many of these industries.

The Transaction diversifies the firm’s talent pool, blending deep experience with emerging perspectives, ensuring continued innovation and relevance in the market. Furthermore, the firms’ strong cultural alignment, shared management philosophies, and focus on delivering blue-chip advisory services reinforce JCL’s position as a premier M&A advisory firm.

The Transaction is expected to close in the second or third quarter of 2025, subject to regulatory approvals from FINRA and the FCA, and other customary closing conditions.

For further information, please contact Kelsey Kovachik Haar at kkovachik@jegiclarity-us.com or visit jegiclarity.com and leonispartners.com.

About JEGI CLARITY
JEGI CLARITY is a pre-eminent M&A advisory firm for the media, events, marketing, information and technology industries. With a global reach from New York, London, Boston, and Sydney, we have closed more than 800 transactions during our 35+ year history. For more information, visit www.jegiclarity.com.

About Leonis Partners
Leonis Partners is a full-service advisory firm dedicated to empowering entrepreneurs and their businesses. Leveraging decades of experience from leading global financial institutions, Leonis delivers tailored solutions in M&A, Capital Raising, Fairness & Valuation Opinions, and other Special Situations. Known for its results-driven approach, the firm consistently achieves superior outcomes for its clients. Headquartered in New York, Leonis Partners continues to drive value for its clients across the Technology landscape and beyond. For more information on Leonis Partners, please visit: www.leonispartners.com.

Safe Harbor Statement
Leonis Principal, Inc. (d/b/a “Leonis Partners”) and The Jordan Edmiston Group, Inc. (d/b/a “JEGI CLARITY,” and together with Leonis Partners, the “Parties”) have entered into a proposed combination agreement (the “Transaction”). The Transaction is subject to approval by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) and in the UK by the Financial Conduct Authority (“FCA”). The Parties will continue to be two distinct entities and businesses until the Parties obtain FINRA’s and the FCA’s approval of, and close, the Transaction. The Parties anticipate the Transaction will close in the second or third quarter of 2025. Leonis Partners presently offers securities through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Leonis Securities, LLC. Leonis Securities LLC is a broker-dealer registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), member of FINRA, and member of the Securities Investor Protection Corporation (“SIPC”). JEGI CLARITY presently offers securities through its wholly-owned subsidiary, JEGI, LLC. JEGI, LLC currently is a broker-dealer registered with the SEC, member of FINRA, and member of SIPC. JEGI, LLC filed to withdraw its broker-dealer registration in the first quarter of 2025 and JEGI CLARITY anticipates that withdrawal will be effective by the end of the first quarter 2025.

This press release contains forward-looking statements, including without limitation those relating to the plans, objectives, opportunities, future performance and business of the combined company JCL. Words such as “will”, “expects”, “anticipates”, “continue” and other variations of such words and similar words also identify forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements include statements regarding the intent, belief or current expectations of JEGI CLARITY and Leonis Partners and their respective representatives. These statements are forward-looking in nature and involve risks and uncertainties, and actual results may differ materially from any potential future results expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties include without limitation the risk in obtaining approval from FINRA or the FCA and risk that the operating results of JCL do not meet the expectations expressed or implied herein. There can be no assurance that any expectations, express or implied, in a forward-looking statement will prove correct or that the contemplated Transaction will occur as anticipated. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements included in this press release. JEGI CLARITY and Leonis Partners assume no obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of new information, subsequent events or any other circumstances. Such statements speak only as of the date of this press release.

William Turvill, Chief Business Correspondent at The Sunday Times, quotes Marcus Anselm, Partner at JEGI CLARITY, during his interview with David Jones, CEO of Brandtech. See below for the full interview or visit The Sunday Times.

On entering a meeting room in Brandtech’s offices in London’s towering Shard building, I find David Jones — chief executive of the $4 billion advertising group — hunched over his MacBook with a boyish smirk on his face.

I have been warned by one of his employees that Jones, an Englishman ordinarily in New York, has prepared some “entertainment” for me. “I have multiple pieces of entertainment,” he confirms with a chuckle. “Where do we start?”

It transpires that 20 minutes before my arrival, Jones, 58, has pulled five images of me from the internet and fed them into Flux, a text-to-image AI tool which he has taken a liking to. By tapping out a few simple commands, he generates ultra-realistic images of me wearing a tuxedo outside a Scottish castle and then, much to the hooting delight of his two onlooking PR advisers, standing topless on a Brazilian beach with a surfboard under my arm.

“This is what we can do now,” enthuses Jones, whose English accent comes littered with Americanisms after 20 years living in the Big Apple. “We couldn’t do this a year ago. Just think what we can do a year from now. It’s, like, mind-blowing.”

For now, he persists with his presentation. Next, he makes me watch a viral AI video that turned Donald Trump and Joe Biden into best friends, touring the US and dining together: “The speed of development is just insane.” Then he shows me Pencil, Brandtech’s own one-stop-shop generative AI tool. It was acquired in 2023 and is used by its multinational clients to create marketing materials. Jones shows me how it was utilised, for an experiment, to quickly create a hypothetical toothpaste that it named Plaque Slayer. “What’s interesting is the speed with which it comes back with something as good as humans would,” says Jones.

After two years of hype about artificial intelligence, it’s easy to glaze over and take for granted how fast technologies like this are evolving. But Brandtech’s boss, an ad industry veteran of more than 30 years, believes his sector is about to be upended.

Before Christmas, Coca-Cola made headlines — many of them fretful — when it unveiled a fully AI-generated “Holidays are Coming” advert. This year, Jones predicts, “every week, a major brand will be putting out a TV commercial they’ve created 100 per cent using gen AI”.

Clearly, he is not impartial. Ten years ago this month, he began fundraising to launch Brandtech as a business to take on the giants of the advertising sector — WPP, Publicis, Dentsu, Havas and the soon-to-merge Omnicom and Interpublic Group (IPG) — by buying up marketing technology. Today, with every big holding company in the sector investing in AI tools, Jones’s challenge is to ensure that Brandtech can establish a position at the forefront of marketing technology. He likens it to an “arms race”.

Jones, who lives with his French wife Karine and has four children, grew up in Cheshire, where he was privately educated. His mother was an artist and his father the chief executive of a textile business called Vantona.

He went on to study business at Reutlingen University in Germany and Middlesex University, before starting out in the ad sector as an intern at an agency called BDH in Manchester. A natural client man blessed with the gift of the gab, he worked across various agencies, before alighting at Havas, which is owned by the French billionaire Vincent Bolloré.

At the age of 38, Jones was made the chief executive of Havas’s Euro RSCG agency, a role in which he advised David Cameron on his 2010 election campaign. The following year, he was appointed chief executive of the wider group. He left just three years later, in 2014, and was replaced by Bolloré’s son, Yannick. Amicable? “Yes,” says Jones. “Vincent Bolloré was extremely keen for me to stay, and tried a few things to make that happen.”

From there, Jones went on to launch Brandtech, or You & Mr Jones as it was first known. Originally, the plan had been to tag “& Mr Jones” onto the end of each company he acquired — so, for example, Pencil & Mr Jones. He later thought better of it: “I may have a healthy ego, but … I didn’t want to make it all about me.”

At first, he raised $350 million from investment giants including Baillie Gifford, JAB and GIC, and then the company, which Jones says has been profitable since its second year, raised a further $200 million in 2019 and $115 million last year, giving it a private market valuation of $4 billion (£3.2 billion).

The pitch was was to create a tech-savvy outfit that could invest in new tools and thrive while the established ad companies were weighed down by the baggage of the past. The mission was to offer clients “better, faster and cheaper” services.

The “better, faster and cheaper” mantra is also championed by Sir Martin Sorrell, the WPP entrepreneur who left the ad giant amid allegations of misconduct and went on to become the founding boss of S4 Capital, a rival advertising start-up to Brandtech. So, who came up with the slogan? “It’s quite easy to work that out,” says Jones, with a short huff and a roll of the eyes. “There’s a little thing called the internet.” He points out that he used this phrase on launching Brandtech in 2015, three years before Sorrell’s controversial departure from WPP and his launch of S4 Capital.

Jones adds: “I think we’ve also been able to witness that S4 is not very good at technology, or doing marketing better, faster or cheaper. But we don’t even need to go there.” I disagree. What does he think has gone wrong at S4, whose market value has fallen from more than £4 billion in 2021 to £200 million today?

Jones doesn’t hold back, arguing that Sorrell was motivated to launch S4 Capital for the wrong reasons — “revenge” against WPP — rather than a desire to build a “great new company for customers and clients”. As a result, Jones thinks, S4 bought too many companies hastily, leading to a “total integration nightmare”.

“I know you guys in the UK think he is a genius,” says Jones. “Those of us not in the UK don’t.” He adds that Sorrell “has presided over more destruction of value in marketing and advertising than any human in history”. This might sound a bit harsh given that Sorrell started WPP from scratch in 1985 and today it is worth £9 billion.

Sorrell says Jones, as he did at Havas, “has done truly brilliantly. Like S4, Brandtech is now seeking to disrupt the ad industry through new technologies. According to press reports, he’s built a $1 billion business with an Ebitda of over $200 million and a market value of $4 billion in eight or nine years starting with two people. Extraordinary!”

The Brandtech Group has 7,000 employees, including 2,000 in the UK. It is made up of 11 companies, including Jellyfish, which helps companies track how they are perceived on generative AI platforms, and Mobkoi, which buys mobile advertising space for clients. Then there is Pencil, a platform that has been used to create marketing materials for brands including Baileys, Durex and Persil. Founded in 2018, it is built on OpenAI’s large-language models and was bought by Jones for an undisclosed sum in 2023.

Leena Nair, the chief executive of Chanel, said the Jones and Brandtech are “reinventing marketing by harnessing the power of generative AI”.

Generative AI tools such as Pencil offer clients the prospect of cheaper marketing, with Jones reckoning that big companies will be able to “cut their content creation costs by at least 50 per cent over the next three years”. His hope is that “smarter companies” will use the money they save to invest in more advertising to stay ahead of their competition.

This will provide little comfort for those in the marketing sector who fear that their specific expertise — photography, videography, acting, editing, visual effects and so on — is under threat. “I don’t think that people who are interested in embracing this new world need be concerned,” says Jones.

He recalls that, upon seeing an early form of the photograph in 1840, the French artist Paul Delaroche declared: “From today, painting is dead.” But, says Jones, “it was the birth of impressionism”. He adds: “If you’re a traditional ad agency, it’s probably not great news. But if you’re a creator, it’s amazing news.”

What next for Brandtech? Marcus Anselm, a partner at media acquisitions adviser at JEGI CLARITY, is keeping a close eye on the business. He says that when Jones started out, he faced “some scepticism” from critics who wondered how his company could stand out from the crowd.

“Ten years on, having made some impressive acquisitions, Brandtech has a distinct positioning,” he says, adding that Jones’s investors will now “be looking for a return on their investment”.

So, could a New York stock market listing be on the cards? Jones is keeping his cards close to his chest. “There are great benefits that come with being public,” he says. “But there are also some big constraints that come with it.

“It’s been fantastic to have very long-term, smart shareholders who’ve just allowed me to build a successful business without worrying about the next quarter. And, once you’re public, you’re worrying about the next quarter. So, we’ll see.”

JEGI CLARITY, a pre-eminent M&A advisory firm for the global media, marketing, information and technology industries, headquartered in New York, NY and London, UK, is pleased to announce that Alon Sheinberg has joined the firm as a Director. He will advise clients on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, and capital raises with a focus on the technology, digital media, and marketing services sectors.

Prior to JEGI CLARITY, Alon built a strong track record of transaction execution, advising companies across a range of technology sectors, including digital media, marketing, EdTech, IT consulting, and software/SaaS. He has successfully completed over 50 transactions, working with leading financial sponsors and strategic acquirers. Alon holds an MBA from the Gies College of Business at the University of Illinois, and a BA/MA in Political Science from Tel-Aviv University. He is also a registered FINRA representative.

Commenting on his new role, Alon said, “I am thrilled to join the team at JEGI CLARITY and contribute to the firm’s commitment to excellence through meticulous transaction execution. JEGI CLARITY’s unmatched industry relationships, extensive leadership experience, and longstanding presence in the media, marketing, information and technology sectors, set it apart in today’s investment banking landscape. I look forward to leveraging my experience to drive exceptional outcomes for our clients as we enter a favorable M&A environment, with market dynamics creating significant acquisition opportunities.”

Doug Stowe, President & COO of JEGI CLARITY, noted, “We are very pleased to welcome Alon to our team. He has a successful history driving outstanding outcomes on behalf of his clients. His knowledge and expertise covering the software, technology, digital media, and marketing services sectors will be highly valuable to our firm and its global network of buyers, sellers and investors.”

Below is an excerpt from an article originally posted on Law.com, titled “The Newest Law Firm Partner: Private Equity.” To read the full article please click here.

“It’s easy to imagine why a law firm lacking the balance sheet to win talent battles might desire an infusion of capital to bolster its competitiveness. But why would this new focus on talent in the legal asset class appeal to investors? Scott Mozarsky, Managing Director at JEGI CLARITY, cites a confluence of factors.

First, regulatory changes and transactions in adjacent sectors have opened investors’ eyes to law firms as an untapped market. “Arizona’s decision to liberalize Rule 5.4 has been a catalyst for investors to take a harder look at the art of the possible relating to investments in law firms,” said Mozarsky. “The recent wave of successful roll-ups in accounting and tax advisory, which have been executed using MSOs, has also been a strong driver. Investors are realizing that the law firm market is larger than they had imagined: it’s a very profitable and scalable business that can benefit from pattern recognition and perspective of financial sponsors. And the multiple private equity-backed roll-ups in accounting, which has similar ethics and regulatory rules to the legal market, are highly relevant proxies.” Mozarsky believes legal talent as an asset class would meet an investor base that is already primed to pursue legal sector deals.

Second, as compared to litigation finance opportunities currently available to institutional investors, legal talent could offer a less risky return profile. Rather than sharing in the return on a subset of a practice group’s matters, a capital provider facilitating the hiring of a group would ultimately be able to benefit from the group’s revenue pool as a whole. This has the potential to appeal to investors seeking a relatively more predictable, private equity-like return. In addition, legal talent investing would offer exposure not only to litigation but to transactional and regulatory practice areas as well.”

Mental Health Awareness Week 2024 takes place from 13 to 19 May, on the theme of “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”

In light of Mental Health Awareness Week 2024, JEGI CLARITY highlights the importance of mental health in the workplace and has taken a proactive approach by registering staff for mental health awareness training.

By prioritizing mental health, we foster a supportive workplace culture, boost productivity and job satisfaction, and mitigate stress and burnout. Mental health training equips employees to recognize common mental health issues, reduce stigma, and provide appropriate support and referrals, building a resilient and adaptable workforce for long-term sustainability.

The theme this year is “Movement: Moving more for our mental health”. But so many of us struggle to move enough. We know there are many different reasons for this, so we are encouraging our teams to find moments for movement in their daily routines. Going for a walk around your office or in your neighborhood, putting on your favorite music and dancing around the living room, and even chair exercises when you are in front of the screens.

Find out more: mentalhealth.org.uk/mhaw.

International Women’s Day (IWD) is a global day celebrating the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity and significant activity is witnessed worldwide as groups come together to celebrate women’s achievements or rally for women’s equality.

International Women’s Day (IWD) provides a key opportunity for organizations worldwide to reinforce and amplify their ongoing commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion through actively forging women’s advancement. 

International Women’s Day provides an important opportunity to fundraise for female-focused charities, help raise their visibility, and amplify awareness raising efforts. If you would like to find out more, please click here.

New York, NY, February 6, 2024 – JEGI CLARITY, a preeminent M&A advisory firm for the global media, marketing, information and technology industries, headquartered in New York, NY and London, UK, is pleased to announce that Jon Thackeray has been promoted to Managing Director.  Jon joined the firm four years ago and is based in the New York office. He advises clients on mergers, acquisitions, divestitures and capital raises across the media, entertainment, legal, GRC, marketing and technology-enabled services sectors and is instrumental in the firm’s coverage of financial sponsors. Jon has advised on a wide range of transactions across M&A, debt and equity capital markets and strategic advisory assignments, with a total deal value in excess of $20bn.

Prior to joining JEGI CLARITY, Jon was a Director with Citi’s Global Media and Communications investment banking team, where he worked for eight years. He began his career in public accounting at Deloitte, working for a variety of public and private clients.

Commenting on his promotion, Jon said, “I am very excited to continue working alongside our incredibly dedicated and talented senior leadership team. I am grateful to all of the wonderful JEGI CLARITY clients whom I have had the privilege of advising, and I look forward to continuing to build on that success, driving successful outcomes for all stakeholders through our sound advice and subject matter expertise within our core sectors.”

Wilma Jordan, Founder & CEO, North America of JEGI CLARITY, noted, “Jon is deep in his sectors and is tailor-made for this next step in his career…he knows the Financial Sponsor field well, and we believe will be very successful in making inroads across the board.”

Jon holds an MBA from the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University, and both an MS in Accounting and a BS in Accounting and Finance from the Carroll School of Management at Boston College. He is a registered FINRA representative and a Certified Public Accountant.