UTV Media acquires social media agency Simply Zesty for up to £5 million

UTV Media, a large British media company, has agreed to acquire social media agency Simply Zesty for initial consideration of £1.7 million. Depending on future trading performance, the price paid may climb to a maximum of £5 million.

The price for Simply Zesty’s business represents four times its anticipated 2012 EBITDA, new owner UTV Media said in a statement.

The social media agency, which was founded in 2009, took an investment of €500,000 from The Oxford Research Agency back in May 2010, but hasn’t raised a dime in funding since as far as we can tell.

From their offices in Dublin and London, the Simply Zesty team has done online PR and social media strategy work for the likes of Nokia, Vodafone, Sony, Enterprise Ireland, Ebookers, News International and Teradata.

The company employs 22 staff and is said to generate 15 percent of its revenues overseas (and growing).

Nigel Robbins, group commercial director for UTV, said the acquisition of Simply Zesty would allow the media company to integrate the knowledge of the freshly acquired agency across its radio, TV and New Media divisions.

Simply Zesty co-founder Lauren Fisher (pictured below with the other co-founder, Niall Harbison, flanking UTV Media CEO John McCann) has also been kind enough to provide The Next Web with great content over the years.