Snyder Communications Inc. has hired Deutsche Bank Alex. Brown to advise the direct marketing company on ways to maximize shareholder value, further fueling speculation that the publicly traded company might be for sale. According to a report in the Washington Post, an offer for Snyder had been made prior to the communciations firm hiring Deutsche Bank.
The result of the statement Thursday by chief financial officer Clayton Perfall was to drive the value of Snyder stock up 20% to $19 a share Friday and up again to $19.75 yesterday.
The Bethesda, MD-based mini-media giant earned $22.8 million last year on revenue of $815 million. Its subsidiaries include Arnold Worldwide (Arnold Communications, before Snyder acquired it in 1998); Circle.com; and Brann Worldwide. Its health care services division was spun off earlier in 1999 into a new publicly traded corporation, Snyder Healthcare Services Inc.
Chairman and chief executive officer of Snyder Communications, Daniel Snyder, also made headlines earlier this year when he lead a group of investors who bought the Washington Redskins, a team in the National Football League, for $800 million.
In a separate development, Brann Worldwide landed the $60-million marketing account for Rent-A-Center, a national rent-to-own store operation. Among the services Brann will provide will be database management to improve decision support and customer traffic.
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