{"id":665275,"date":"2026-05-12T04:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665275\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T04:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:33:13","slug":"merkle-gone-in-anz-as-dentsu-sells-salesforce-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/665275\/","title":{"rendered":"Merkle gone in ANZ as Dentsu sells Salesforce practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dentsu is set to fold its technology consulting arm Merkle into its broader Australia and New Zealand operations, following last week\u2019s move to merge its media divisions.<\/p>\n

As part of the restructure, Merkle will sell its Salesforce practice in ANZ to US-based holding company Enduring Ventures, which will spin it out into a new standalone business.<\/p>\n

The deal is expected to close in the third quarter of 2026.<\/p>\n

The remaining Merkle capabilities \u2014 and a team of 50 people \u2014 will be redistributed across the business, with experience and commerce functions moving into Dentsu Creative, while a new centralised data and analytics unit will be established under the leadership of Danica Bellchambers.<\/a><\/p>\n

ADVERTISEMENT<\/p>\n

In the same vein as the media integration announced last week,<\/a> Merkle will cease to exist as a standalone brand in ANZ, with clients serviced under the Dentsu umbrella, except in the case of international client arrangements.<\/p>\n

\u201cClients are telling us they want a clearer, more direct way to work with us,\u201d Dentsu ANZ CEO Rob Harvey said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese changes are about responding to that by sharpening our focus on what we do best and making it easier for clients to access the full strength of Dentsu.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLast week, we announced our move to bring our media brands together under one united media proposition. Today\u2019s changes are the next step in our strategy to build a more connected dentsu across ANZ by integrating experience, commerce, data and technology capabilities into our core business and continuing to invest in what our clients value most.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merkle\u2019s ANZ leaders Paul Whittaker and Gareth Reason will move to the yet-to-be-named Salesforce-focused company alongside the bulk of Merkle\u2019s 130 local Salesforce staff, Mumbrella understands.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to thank the Merkle Salesforce team for their contribution to\u202fDentsu\u202fover many years,\u201d Harvey added. \u201cThey have built strong client relationships and a business that is well-positioned for its next chapter.\u202f\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Dentsu\u2019s most recent Australian results, the business posted $196m in revenue,<\/a> of which $115m came from media services, $45m from consulting, and $35m from production.<\/p>\n

Mumbrella understands that Merkle\u2019s contribution sits primarily within the consulting numbers, among other capability areas.<\/p>\n

The company also posted a $76m loss, largely driven by impairment charges, including a $25.8m write-down.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dentsu is set to fold its technology consulting arm Merkle into its broader Australia and New Zealand operations,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665276,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,321266,43570,321267,321268,321269],"class_list":["post-665275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-danica-bellchambers","tag-dentsu","tag-gareth-reason","tag-merkle","tag-paul-whittaker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}