Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group Merger
<p><strong>New York — June 26</strong><br />Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group (UIG) has announced the merger of Latin Force LLC, a Hispanic marketing strategy firm, with Geoscape International Inc., a multicultural consumer intelligence and data analytics company. </p><p>UIG is a substantial investor in Latin Force Group, the merged entity. </p><p>Terms of the investments were not disclosed. <br /><br />In December 2006, UIG and Latin Force CEO David J. Perez announced an agreement to acquire leading firms in the Hispanic marketing services space. </p><p>“This transaction is the first following that agreement and creates the leader in integrated marketing services targeting the U.S. Hispanic consumer, and it is a natural first step in a broader growth strategy,” said Goldman Sachs Managing Director Kevin Jordan. “The merged company will provide its existing and future customers with a clear competitive advantage in reaching America’s fastest growing demographic.” </p><p>The investment follows a record year in 2006 for advertising spending in Spanish-language media at more than $5.5 billion. </p><p>This growth represents a 14.4 percent year-over-year increase across all Hispanic-focused media.<br /><br />The new company, Latin Force Group, provides integrated marketing services for more than a quarter of the Fortune 100. </p><p>Through a wide suite of products and services, Latin Force Group enables corporations to leverage their customer relationship data to better identify and service ethnic consumers. </p><p>“Our products identify and segment customer data by ethnicity, acculturation, media preferences, as well as consumer spending patterns,” said Cesar Melgoza, founder of Geoscape and now managing director of Latin Force Group.<br /><br />The Latin Force Group will inherit Geoscape’s proprietary Web-based platform, which draws upon highly accurate database engines to reveal cultural attributes via dynamic segmentation, demographics and consumer spending data. </p><p>“This is an exciting first step in building out a full-service, integrated marketing company," said David J. Perez, Latin Force CEO. "The combination of Latin Force’s strategy consulting and Geoscape’s market intelligence data and systems form a unique and solid foundation for accelerated growth and future acquisitions. </p><p>“Geoscape founder, Cesar Melgoza, has built a smart, dynamic company with world-class products. I’m thrilled to have him and his staff as partners in our common vision.”<br /><br />Latin Force Group will operate from offices in New York, Los Angeles and Miami. </p><p>All current staff membes will remain in place with plans to make a number of strategic hires in sales, finance and consulting immediately. </p><p>Geoscape Europe BV and Geoscape Brasil LTDA will continue operations as affiliated strategic partners.</p>
