The announcement earlier this month that New Jersey-based DG3 North America, a provider of global graphic communications services, had acquired New York-based Ace Group, a full-service print and electronic marketing solutions provider that has recently gained significant recognition for its work with interactive campaigns with major brands featuring QR Codes, caught our eye, as well, I am sure, as the eyes of many of their individual competitors.WhatTheyThink spoke with Tom Saggiomo, DG3’s CEO, and Val DiGiacinto, Ace’s Vice President Sales/Partner, to understand the rationale behind this acquisition, and where they expect to take the combined organizations in the future.

WTT: Tom and Val, thanks for speaking with us today, and congratulations. Perhaps you could share a little background with our readers as to how this combination of two successful operations—at least from our perspective—came about.

TS: Of course, I have known Val and the Ace Group for some time; we have had various business relationships over the years. At DG3, our DNA from way back was that of a printer, and we have evolved with the market so that we are doing more than just hardcopy output. We have keen interest in other means of communication, and one that is very interesting for us is mobile, which is exploding. That’s what prompted the initial discussion with Ace,  a very clever organization with interesting technology platforms, mobile in particular. The way they have implemented QR code technology was keenly interesting for us. So there was a  match. We looked at the possibility of putting the two companies together. The reason Ace wanted to do this transaction has everything to do with growth.