PR Tech Pros Merge

Blanc & Otus and Sock-et Public Relations have agreed to merge operations.

Atlanta-based Socket will be folded into B&O in San Francisco. Both firms, units of Hill and Knowlton, are focused on the technology sector.

"We've been working with them," said B&O president and chief operating officer Greg Spector. "They're very much like us in terms of culture and how they approach their business. We went to Hill and Knowlton, said we'd like to merge. They said, 'Go for it.' "

The new configuration, representing $23 million in 2001 revenue, encompasses some 90 employees and satellite offices in Austin, Texas, Boston and Washington, D.C.

Socket's Beverly McDonald and Peter Baron become co-general managers of B&O Atlanta. Craig Parks will continue to head up what had been Socket's Austin office.

The merger comes at a time when slumping technology spending is triggering intense competition for scarce business.

"Three years ago, we competed with tech boutiques similar to ourselves," said Spector. 'Then the Internet boom forced big players like Fleishman-Hillard and Porter Novelli to create technology practices. Now we're competing with everybody for every piece of business."

B&O was formed in 1986 by Maureen Blanc, who now heads H&K's global technology practice. Socket was founded in 1992.

Spector said expertise gained over the years has been incorporated into B&O's "life-cycle methodology," an assessment of differing communications requirements tied to a company's growth from startup to global entity.