Pre-close · Marketing Agencies

IP Transfer & Licensing for Marketing Agencies Independent Sponsors

Securities and M&A counsel for independent sponsors structuring marketing agencies transactions, from LOI to close to the capital markets that open up afterward.

EV range $5M to $80M EV EBITDA $1.5M to $14M Audience Buy-side / Sponsor
The deal context

Every marketing agencies acquisition has its own gravity. IP Transfer & Licensing is the workstream where independent sponsor counsel earns the seat.

The typical marketing agencies platform sits at $5M to $80M EV with EBITDA in the $1.5M to $14M range. The thesis runs on specialty agency or holdco platform with bolt-ons. If the founder leaves, half the agencies in the market lose 25% of revenue. Structure for that.

The moves

How IP Transfer & Licensing actually gets structured.

  1. Identify all IP, including informal employee-inventor work product.

  2. Pull assignments and works-for-hire records, with gaps remediated pre-close.

  3. Address open-source license compliance in any software stack.

  4. Plan trademark assignment recordation and continuation filings.

  5. In marketing agencies, layer in client roster scrubbed for top-five concentration as part of the IP Transfer & Licensing workstream.

The common mistake

Assuming the company owns its IP because the website says so. Without paper, ownership is a hope.

Jason's take
"Every piece of IP in the deal needs a chain of title. Find the gaps before the buyer's counsel does."
Jason Powell · IP Transfer & Licensing
Capital after close

The deal is one thing. The capital that opens up after close is another.

Refinancing, recaps, growth rounds, and the right strategic conversation eighteen months early are all downstream of relationships that take years to build and minutes to use.

MONTH 18
Senior refi
MONTH 24
Dividend recap
MONTH 36
Growth equity
YEAR 4–5
Strategic exit
TALK TO JASON

An LOI on the desk, a marketing agencies target, and a IP Transfer & Licensing question worth a real conversation.

Twenty minutes of practitioner-grade input from a securities attorney whose first move is to read the deal, not the engagement letter.