Sequence Personal (www.sequencepartners.com), an innovative provider of proprietary software that enables readers to select relevant content to be digitally produced as specialized publications, has been sold to R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company (NASDAQ: RRD). Focused originally on the creation of individualized medical journals with targeted advertising, Sequence’s technologies have expanded to enable custom publishing across a broad variety of verticals. For example, its ANTHOLOGY offering provides consumers a wide array of choices for individualizing content. Publishers and other organizations can take advantage of Sequence’s applications to increase revenues by allowing advertisers to select unique ad selection criteria for more targeted delivery.
JEGI CLARITY (www.jegiclarity.com) of New York, NY, the leading independent investment bank for the media, information, marketing services, and technology sectors, represented Sequence Personal in this transaction and acted as its exclusive financial advisor.
“We continue to expand the revenue enhancement solutions that we can provide to publishers and other customers,” said Thomas J. Quinlan III, RR Donnelley’s President and Chief Executive Officer. “In combination with our extensive digital production platform that includes more than 1,000 units worldwide, Sequence’s software offers a practical, immediate way to monetize that demand. This will be a superb fit with our CustomPoint Solutions Group, which is helping customers implement a host of innovative content creation, management and delivery services.”
Sequence will become a part of RR Donnelley’s CustomPoint Solutions Group, which provides collaborative strategies for originating creative and editorial content, multichannel marketing, proven esubscription models, self‐serve direct marketing and custom publishing.
“The addition of Sequence’s capabilities reflects RR Donnelley’s continuing ability to provide resources that address our customers’ emerging needs,” said John Paloian, the company’s Chief Operating Officer. “The ability to deliver targeted content is attractive to readers, advertisers, publishers and other RR Donnelley customers across virtually every segment that we serve.”
The JEGI CLARITYTeam was an invaluable resource throughout the sale of Sequence Personal to RR Donnelley and clearly showed their deep knowledge and understanding of technology-driven businesses. JEGI CLARITY recognized the fit of Sequence’s custom publishing software within RRD’s CustomPoint Solutions Group, helped us define our strategy, and was instrumental in closing this transaction between a Fortune 500 giant and an emerging, high-growth technology company, despite challenging market conditions. In short, JEGI CLARITY’s insights, support and negotiating skills were superlative from start to finish.
Charles Benaiah, CEO, Sequence Personal