Razorfish (company)

Razorfish was founded in New York in 1994 by childhood friends Craig Kanarick and Jeff Dachis, with the motto "Solutions to Hard Problems." The company was originally headquartered at Jeff's apartment in Alphabet City in Manhattan. Their first major project was a $20,000 assignment to create a small website for the New York Botanical Society, commissioned by Time Warner's Pathfinder business unit.[9] A few months later, they moved into an office at 580 Broadway and hired three new employees.

The company generated over $300,000 in revenues in 1995 and over $1.2m in 1996, with a $300k EBITDA profit.

They were one of the first companies to have an animated homepage, utilizing the "server-push" capabilities of the latest version of the Netscape browser. Because of this and aggressive marketing tactics the firm grew quickly over the next few years. Soon thereafter, they received a strategic investment from Omnicom (along with other New Media pioneers, Agency.com, Red Sky Interactive, Think New Ideas and Organic), making them one of the first firms to be financed by a traditional media holding company. Razorfish used this money to move to new offices, redesign their branding (to include the slogan "Everything that can be digital will be.") and expand operations. It and other New York-based Web design companies formed the core of a cluster of New Media companies known as Silicon Alley.

In 1997, the company generated over $3.6 million in revenues, with a healthy portfolio of prestigious clients like KPMG and Charles Schwab.[10]

In January 1998, Razorfish made its first of what was to be many acquisitions, by purchasing Avalanche Systems. In 1998, Razorfish also acquired Plastic in San Francisco,[11] London-based CHBi,[12] Los Angeles-based <tag> media, and then merged with Scandinavian interactive leader, Spray,[13] which had offices in Sweden, Finland, Norway and Germany.

The company generated over $83 million in revenue in 1998 and was profitable, putting it on solid ground for an IPO. The company had over 1,100 employees at the time.[14]

In April 1999, the company had an IPO which raised $48 million at $16 per share.[9]

In fall 1999, Razorfish acquired International Integration, Inc. (I-Cube),[15] a Boston-based company founded by Yannis Doganis, Madhav Anand, and Edouard (Eddie) Aslanian, its largest deal to date. The company's sales for 1999 topped $170 million.

In May 2000, Razorfish announced the launch of Intervision-Razorfish, a joint venture based in Tokyo.[16] Around the same time, as the entire industry started to feel the effects of the dot-com bubble, Razorfish saw Q4 revenues of $50.1m, a 5% drop from the year before. Total revenues for 2000 were almost $268 million. In February 2001, Razorfish laid off 400 employees, roughly 20 percent of its staff, with its stock price descending from a February 2000 high of $57 to just $1 per share.

In February 2000, Craig Kanarick and Jeff Dachis were interviewed by Bob Simon on 60 Minutes II, where they appeared unable to answer the question, "What do you do?".[17]

The interview was widely viewed as a complete disaster.[18]

Razorfish was taken private by SBI Group (formerly SBI and Company) in 2003[19] and was renamed to SBI.Razorfish. SBI also purchased other assets from "The Fast Five," including Scient/iXL, MarchFirst (formerly USWeb and CKS Group), Emerald Solutions, Lante, and Xcelerate.

The company was renamed again, this time as Avenue A | Razorfish when the SBI.Razorfish division of the SBI Group (formerly SBI and Company) was acquired by aQuantive in 2004.

The Avenue A | Razorfish combination in 2004 resulted in an interactive agency which according to Ad Age had the highest interactive revenue in the US in 2005, at $189.8 million.[20]

Microsoft announced on May 18, 2007 its intention to acquire Avenue A | Razorfish as part of a $6.0 billion cash purchase of parent company aQuantive.[21] The transaction closed on August 10, 2007. Razorfish continued to function as an independent company as part of Microsoft Advertising, run by Brian McAndrews, formerly CEO of aQuantive, who reported directly to the president of Microsoft's Platforms & Services Division. On October 20, 2008, the company decided to be known as Razorfish, dropping the Avenue A brand.

In June 2009, it was reported that Microsoft had put the company up for sale.[22]

Microsoft had earlier in June 2009 notified the markets of its intention to sell Razorfish, which many believed conflicted with Microsoft Advertising's main operations that sell advertising technology services to rival agencies.[23] On August 9, Paris-based holding company Publicis Groupe agreed to acquire Razorfish from Microsoft for US$530 million in cash and shares, which in turn gave Microsoft a 3% equity stake in Publicis Groupe.[24] [25] Clark Kokich had served as CEO of the company since July 2007; however, in April 2008, Bob Lord was named the new CEO, while Kokich took on the newly formed role of Chairman. In July 2013, Pete Stein was promoted to the role of Global CEO. Stein had been part of the executive leadership team for five years. Pete was succeed as the CEO by Tom Adamski and then by Shannon Denton. In October 2015, Tom Adamski died of cancer.[26]

In 2016, Razorfish merged with SapientNitro to form SapientRazorfish, led by former SapientNitro CEO Alan Wexler, who also became Co-CEO of Publicis.Sapient with and Sapient Consulting CEO Chip Register.[27]

In April 1998, the Razorfish Subnetwork, designed by Razorfish, was added to the permanent collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

In 2008, Razorfish won over 75 creative awards including 10 Webbys, 11 Interactive Media Awards, 16 WebAwards, 3 OMMAs, 2 ADDYs, and 3 Create Awards.[28] The Nike “Sweet Spots” campaign produced by Duke, a Razorfish Company (located in France), was recognized on the 2008 Cannes Cyber Lions shortlist.[29] Also, Razorfish's Chief Strategy Officer Jeff Lanctot, was named for the second consecutive year to the Mediaweek 50, a list of the country's top media executives. Forrester Research cited the company as a leader in “The Forrester Wave: Interactive Marketing Agencies” report published in December 2007.[30] Ad Age named (then) Avenue A | Razorfish 2005 media agency of the year.[31] Forrester Research ranked it as a top-tier web design agency in its 2006 Web Design Agency Shootout. Its work for Mercedes-AMG won the 2006 Webby Award for Best Automotive Site, and its redesign of NYTimes.com garnered a 2007 Webby for Best Newspaper Site.[32]

In 2010, Razorfish was awarded Top Value Added Partner by Adobe for Razorfish's work in the Enterprise Partner Program for Omniture technology.

Ad Age placed Razorfish at number 4 on their annual Agency A-List.[33] Also in 2012, Razorfish won the One Show Entertainment Gold pencil for Innovation in Branded Content for client Axe.[34]

In 2013, Razorfish was again recognized by Ad Age, placing number 9 on their annual Agency A-List.[35]