CKS Group was an
advertising agency
An advertising agency, often referred to as a creative agency or an ad agency, is a business dedicated to creating, planning, and handling advertising and sometimes other forms of promotion and marketing for its clients. An ad agency is generally ...
based in
Cupertino, California
Cupertino ( ) is a city in Santa Clara County, California, United States, directly west of San Jose on the western edge of the Santa Clara Valley with portions extending into the foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The population was 57,8 ...
, that catered to
technology companies
A technology company (or tech company) is an electronics-based technological company, including, for example, business relating to digital electronics, software, and internet-related services, such as e-commerce services.
Details
According to '' ...
. The initials CKS came from the three name partners, Bill Cleary,
Mark Kvamme
Mark Kvamme (born February 20, 1961) is a venture capitalist at the firm Drive Capital in Columbus, Ohio and a sports car racing driver.
Business career
Kvamme founded Drive Capital with Chris Olsen in 2013. He currently sits on the board of Aver ...
, and Tom Suiter. All three had previously worked for
Apple Computer
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company b ...
. The company went public in 1995 and merged with
USWeb in 1998.
History
The origins of CKS Group went back to Cleary Communications, a business venture started by Cleary in 1987. Kvamme bought into the venture in 1989, and the CKS name was adopted in 1991 after Suiter joined the other two.
Due to its partners' history, the company had a natural expertise with
interface design
User interface (UI) design or user interface engineering is the design of user interfaces for machines and software, such as computers, home appliances, mobile devices, and other electronic devices, with the focus on maximizing usability and t ...
and other technical matters that distinguished it from traditional advertising agencies. It also had a ready-made client base, with Apple as one of its major customers. CKS bought a video production studio from Apple and at one point contemplated putting together a
cable television
Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with broa ...
channel with
Ziff-Davis Publishing
Ziff Davis, Inc. is an American digital media and internet company. First founded in 1927 by William Bernard Ziff Sr. and Bernard George Davis, the company primarily owns technology-oriented media websites, online shopping-related services, and ...
. The studio was to be used to create
infomercial
An infomercial is a form of television commercial that resembles regular TV programming yet is intended to promote or sell a product, service or idea. It generally includes a toll-free telephone number or website. Most often used as a form of dire ...
s to fill airtime, while also doing work for Apple, which had a demand for video work but had found the studio too expensive to maintain.
In late 1998, CKS Group merged with USWeb. The merger was a stock transaction involving an exchange of 1.5 shares of USWeb stock for each share of CKS. At the time, USWeb was still losing money while CKS had managed to post a profit in its latest quarter. With an estimated value of the transaction approaching $350 million when the deal was announced,
the combined market capitalization of the two companies was around $728 million. The news prompted a fall in USWeb's stock price while CKS stock, which had been trading near 52-week lows, rose initially but then fell again.
Among the benefits touted was joining USWeb's technical and Internet design skills with the traditional advertising and marketing savvy of CKS. The merged company was to be renamed Reinvent Communications, but the new name did not stick and the company was generally known as USWeb/CKS or simply USWeb. With the merger, the company had nearly 2,000 employees and clients, including Apple Computer, Levi Strauss, and Harley-Davidson. Since both companies had been busy making acquisitions, the deal prompted concerns about integrating these into a single organization along with a potential culture clash. There was also a wide age gap between the younger USWeb employees and those of CKS.
In December 1999, after buying boutique management consulting firm Mitchell Madison Group for over $300 million, USWeb merged with Whittman-Hart, another consulting firm based in Chicago. The combined company, a merger of equals, had over 10,000 employees with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion. This deal involved Whittman-Hart exchanging 0.865 shares of its stock for each share of USWeb, and another new name for the merged company as
marchFIRST Inc. The new company was headed by Whittman-Hart CEO Robert Bernard. Shaw was announced as chairman but resigned prior to taking on that role.
With the burst of the dot-com bubble, marchFIRST went into bankruptcy in April 2001 and its assets were liquidated. Some of the units, including USWeb and Whittman-Hart, survived the breakup and re-emerged as separate companies.
References
{{Reflist
*Weston, Rusty.
The In-Your-Interface Ad Agency. ''Wired'', July 1994.
Advertising agencies of the United States
Companies based in Cupertino, California