written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . june 2014 learn how and when to remove this template message razorfish type subsidiary traded as nasdaq razf 1999 2003 industry digital marketing predecessor razorfish inc. sbi razorfish avenue a razorfish founded new york city united states 1995 1995 founder craig kanarick jeff dachis area served worldwide number of employees 2 000 parent publicis groupe website www.razorfish.com razorfish part of publicis groupe is one of the world s largest 1 interactive agencies . razorfish provides services including web development media planning and buying technology and innovation emerging media analytics mobile advertising creative social influence marketing and search . razorfish has more than 2 000 employees worldwide with u.s. offices in new york chicago seattle san francisco philadelphia portland los angeles atlanta and austin . in 2005 2007 it expanded overseas through acquisitions in london 2 paris 3 sydney hong kong shanghai beijing berlin frankfurt 4 singapore and a joint venture in tokyo . 5 in 2013 razorfish launched its operations in india through the acquisition of neev technologies . razorfish neev is based in bangalore and provides outsourced product and application development solutions . 6 contents 1 history 1.1 beginnings 1.2 early success 1.3 60 minutes ii interview 1.4 acquisition by sbi 1.5 acquisition by aquantive 1.6 acquisition by microsoft 1.7 acquisition by publicis groupe 2 global offices 3 awards and recognition 3.1 1998 3.2 2008 3.3 2010 3.4 2012 3.5 2013 4 references 5 external links history edit beginnings edit 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 . 7 a few months later they moved into an office at 580 broadway and hired three new employees . early success edit the company generated over 300 000 in revenues in 1995 and over 1.2 m 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 . 8 the company became both extremely well known and respected in the industry . in 1997 the company generated over 3.6 million in revenues . 9 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 10 london based chbi 11 and then merged with scandinavian interactive leader spray 12 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 . 13 in april 1999 the company had an ipo which raised 48 million at 16 per share . 7 in fall 1999 razorfish acquired international integration inc. i cube 14 a boston based company founded by sundar subramaniam and john j. donovan for 1.2 billion 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 . 15 around the same time as the entire industry started to feel the effects of the dot com bubble razorfish saw q4 revenues of 50.1 m 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 october 2015 the ceo tom adamski died of cancer . 16 60 minutes ii interview edit in february 2000 craig kanarick and jeff dachis were interviewed by bob simon on 60 minutes ii where they appeared to be unable to answer the question what do you do . 17 the interview was widely viewed as a complete disaster . 18 acquisition by sbi edit 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 . acquisition by aquantive edit the company was again renamed 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 usa in 2005 at 189.8 million . 20 acquisition by microsoft edit 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 acquisition by publicis groupe edit 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 usd 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 . global offices edit north america united states razorfish canada razorfish europe germany razorfish uk razorfish asia pacific australia razorfish china razorfish hong kong razorfish india razorfish neev singapore razorfish latin america brazil razorfish awards and recognition edit 1998 edit in april 1998 the razorfish subnetwork designed by razorfish was added to the permanent collection of the san francisco museum of modern art. 2008 edit 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 . 26 the nike sweet spots campaign produced by duke a razorfish company located in france was recognized on the 2008 cannes cyber lions shortlist . 27 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 . 28 forrester research cited the company as a leader in the forrester wave interactive marketing agencies report published in december 2007 . 29 ad age named then avenue a razorfish 2005 media agency of the year . 30 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 . 31 2010 edit in 2010 razorfish was awarded top value added partner by adobe for razorfish s work in the enterprise partner program for omniture technology . 2012 edit ad age placed razorfish at number 4 on their annual agency a list . 32 also in 2012 razorfish won the one show entertainment gold pencil for innovation in branded content for client axe . 33 2013 edit in 2013 razorfish was again recognized by ad age placing number 9 on their annual agency a list . 34 references edit updated big changes at publicis . www.adweek.com . retrieved 2016 04 14 . avenue a razorfish acquires u.k. based interactive marketing agency dna 6 december 2005 avenue a razorfish snaps up french agency 7 march 2007 avenue a razorfish enters germany with neue digitale buy 9 august 2006 avenue a razorfish adds japanese outpost 17 january 2007 http www.business standard.com article companies publicis acquires neev launches razorfish in india 113041800217 1.html a b razorfish inc. history . international directory of company histories . 27 . st. james press . 2001 . the mysterious origins of the term silicon alley revealed . built in nyc . retrieved 2016 04 14 . razorfish inc. company history . www.company histories.com . retrieved 2016 04 14 . melding cultures no easy task when companies marry . www.businessweek.com . retrieved 2016 04 14 . chbi razorfish private company information businessweek . www.bloomberg.com . retrieved 2016 04 14 . razorfish merges with europe s spray network . www.clickz.com . retrieved 2016 04 14 . brattitude adjustment . wired . retrieved 2016 04 14 . short take razorfish acquires i cube cnet november 2 1999 . razorfish joint venture renamed . adweek . retrieved 2016 04 14 . razorfish global ceo tom adamski passes . adage.com . october 19 2015 . retrieved july 11 2016 . the dot com kids cbs news february 15 2000 . brattitude adjustment wired september 1 2000 . sbi and company completes acquisition of razorfish inc. . pr newswire . march 3 2003 . retrieved february 1 2013 . top 50 interactive agencies advertising age datacenter agencies april 28 2006 revised june 5 2006 microsoft press release 18 may 2007 microsoft to cut razorfish loose . microsoft puts razorfish up for sale . financial times . june 28 2009 . vranica suzanne august 10 2009 . publicis to buy razorfish . wall street journal . mary elizabeth hurn april 22 2009 . razorfish names bob lord ceo kokich to become chairman . clark kokich had served as the ceo of the company since july 2007 however in april 2009 bob lord was named the new ceo while kokich will took on sic the newly formed role of chairman . razorfish 2008 awards cannes cyber lions short list 2008 mediaweek 50 2008 29 september 2008 the forrester wave interactive marketing agencies q4 2007 4 december 2007 best media agency avenue a razorfish nov. 7 2005 . retrieved july 5 2012 . http webbyawards.com webbys current.php season 11 webby entry newspaper http adage.com article special report agency alist razorfish 4 ad age agency a list 232229 http www.oneclub.org olb ajax archive action arc work % 26value 18801 http adage.com article special report agency alist 2013 razorfish 9 ad age s agency a list 239320 external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title razorfish company