Mumbai-headquartered Ugam has around 1,800 employees in India, the US and Australia. It will be rebranded to Ugam, a Merkle company.

The value of the deal was not disclosed, but Dentsu said it is one of Merkle’s largest transactions to date.

The acquisition will scale Merkle’s analytical business through Ugam’s analytical and proprietary tools, provide a platform for Dentsu Aegis Network and Merkle’s shared analytics services, and add new analytical services to Dentsu’s M1 people-based insights planning platform.

Sunil Mirani, co-founder and chief executive officer, will lead the company, reporting to Craig Dempster, president of Merkle Americas.

The acquisition is part of Merkle’s strategy to develop “a scaled on- and offshore shared analytics service” across Dentsu Aegis Network, according to Dempster. He added: “With its experienced management team, highly-educated workforce, scale, and vertical market expertise, Ugam will bring high-end analytics capabilities, along with a broad spectrum of analytical decision support.”

Alex Yoder, executive vice-president, analytics for Merkle, said the deal would help the company “effectively compete with top analytic consulting firms over the next three to five years.”