Gage Marketing Group LLC yesterday acquired Kuester Partners Inc., Wilshire Group Inc. and a substantial equity stake in Marketing Bridge LLC.
The Minneapolis-based marketing agency also signed a letter of intent to purchase 50 percent of Bitstream Underground.
Kuester is a brand communications agency in Minneapolis with 25 employees and annual billings of $35 million. The company's clients include General Mills, United Health Group, US Bancorp/Piper Jaffray and Steinway & Sons.
Wilshire Group, Irvine, CA, specializes in business-to-business Web-based marketing for the technology industry and has annual billings of $20 million.
Marketing Bridge is a Web development and e-commerce engineering firm based in Edina, MN. The company's clients include Super Valu, Kraft, General Motors and General Electric.
Minneapolis-based Bitstream Underground provides Web design and hosting services.
Gage, which has 250 employees and annual revenue of $60 million, expects the investments to help expand its integrated marketing services offerings.