Segal Group acquires Benz Communications

Consulting firm The Segal Group acquired Benz Communications, a human resources and employee benefits communications consulting firm.

Terms of the deal, which closed Jan. 1, were not disclosed.

New York-based Segal acquired all of San Francisco-based Benz's clients and absorbed its 30 employees.

In addition to expanding Segal's client base, the deal will strengthen its communications consulting practice and supplement its personalized communications with Benz's modern communication style, executives from both companies said.

"As a full-service HR firm, Segal is in the business of working with clients to support their business and people strategies, and strong communications is an essential part of that," said David Blumenstein, president and CEO of Segal, in an interview.

Segal Group merged Benz Communications into its 30-person communication consulting practice to form Segal Benz, a new entity led by Jennifer Benz, the former CEO of Benz Communications, who is based in San Francisco as a senior vice president. The new practice joins other Segal subsidiaries, including Segal Consulting, Sibson Consulting and Segal Marco Advisors.

The deal will allow the two companies to serve more diversified clients as each caters to different client groups. Segal serves primarily pension funds, while Benz serves technology and financial services companies as well as universities.

"I think that's going to be exciting for us to be able to expand the type of organizations that we work with," Ms. Benz said in an interview. She was also enthusiastic about their complementary services. "They do personalized communications, which is something that we at Benz did not do before," she added.

"We wanted to combine with Benz because we believe that they would be able to bring that kind of new and fresh perspective to communicating with employees in the organization," Mr. Blumenstein added.

With the addition of Benz's 30 staff members, the Segal communications team will grow to 60.

The acquisition will not result in any layoffs within the expanded communications practice and will lead to additional hires soon, Ms. Benz said.

In addition to Ms. Benz, the Segal Benz leadership team will include New York-based Randolph B. Carter, who was a senior vice president and the leader of Segal's national communications practice, and San Francisco-based Isabelle Englund-Geiger, who was chief experience officer at Benz. Mr. Carter and Ms. Englund-Geiger will serve as senior vice presidents at Segal Benz.

"It's a significant move for us, and we think it will have a real impact on the marketplace," Mr. Blumenstein said.