SAMY pays at least $100 million in cash and stock to make Get Engaged its US arm

"Low nine-figure" is Cam Fordham's phrase, given to Fortune ^[1]. The $100 million floor is Fortune's own reading of it ^[2]. The payment mixes stock and cash, plus what Fordham called an "injection of resources to scale even further" ^[3]. The stock is paper in SAMY, a Madrid-founded company majority-owned by the private equity firm Bridgepoint ^[11], so what the founders collect on that portion rises or falls with SAMY's value.

Get Engaged has more than 100 employees across Atlanta, New York, Nashville and Los Angeles ^[9]. At the $100 million floor, that comes to about $1 million a head ^[17]. Fordham says revenue has grown 40% year over year ^[10]. The companies did not disclose revenue or the split between cash and stock, so no sales multiple can be computed from the record.

SAMY has roughly 1,200 employees across North America, Europe, Asia and Latin America ^[11]. Get Engaged's staff is equal to about 8% of that ^[18]. SAMY is buying a U.S. business under another firm's name: Get Engaged keeps its brand and will operate as SAMY's U.S. arm ^[6]. All three cofounders stay, Alex Dermer takes the CEO title ^[4], and the founders say no layoffs will result ^[7]. "Fundamentally, it's an acquisition, but the founders, all of us here today, will remain," Fordham said ^[5].

WARC's figures, as Fortune reported them, show where ad budgets are going. Social media has overtaken paid search as the largest advertising channel by spend ^[13]. WARC forecasts global ad spend rising 9.1% to $1.3 trillion in 2026, with nearly 80% of it in retail media, paid search and social ^[14]. Linear TV took 41.3% of global ad spend in 2013 and was on track for 12.4% in 2025 ^[15], about 30% of its earlier share ^[19]. Get Engaged's 50 Cent campaign for DoorDash launched ahead of Super Bowl LX without a national in-game buy ^[8].

There are three ways to read the price. One is that buyers are now paying more for social-native agencies in general. Another is a premium specific to SAMY, paid for a ready-made U.S. operation. A third is that the stock leg, valued at whatever SAMY's shares are worth, makes the headline look bigger than the cash. I think the second fits the evidence best. The deal keeps Get Engaged's brand and puts its three founders in charge of SAMY's U.S. business. The case against that view comes from the founders, who say inbound interest had been building before they chose SAMY ^[16], and the Raine Group advised Get Engaged ^[12]. By their account, SAMY was not the only party interested. Still, one deal at an undisclosed multiple does not show values rising across the sector. A second social-first agency sale near $1 million a head, or news that most of this price was paid in cash, would move me toward the market-wide reading.