San Antonio—Giles-Parscale, the digital marketing company that rose to fame during President Trump’s campaign by handling the online work during the candidate’s surprise victory, has sold to a California business for $9 million in stock, according to news reports.
The San Antonio marketing firm is selling to CloudCommerce, which helps businesses integrate with enterprise e-commerce tools in order to sell products online and via mobile devices. CloudCommerce is changing the marketing company’s name to Parscale Digital, and Brad Parscale, the founder and businessman who came to fame when he led Trump’s digital marketing efforts during the 2016 campaign, is getting a board seat at CloudCommerce, according to the San Antonio Express-News, which first reported the news.
Parscale will only work as a consultant for the digital marketing business. For political work, he is spinning out a separate marketing company, Parscale Strategy, that will be based in Florida, according to the Express-News, which received a news release early before posting a story this morning. CloudCommerce and Parscale haven’t responded to requests for comment, nor have they released the news publicly.
Continuing work in the political realm will keep Parscale focused on the work that made him a known force. As the digital director for the Trump campaign, Parscale raked in praise and cash. The marketer took in $9 million in August of last year alone from the Trump campaign for his work to market the candidate online, according to Wired, which was the first publication to interview Parscale. By the end of the campaign, Parscale had taken in $90 million, according to the Express-News.
Bloomberg dove deep into the digital marketing efforts in October, only days before Trump upset Hillary Clinton for the presidency. The Bloomberg article noted that the Trump organization insisted that its digital marketing effort could still “shock the world on Election Day,” despite almost every metric suggesting Trump would lose. Trump indeed shocked the world, and that victory solidified Parscale’s star status.
CloudCommerce (OTCMKTS: [[ticker:CLWD]]), which regulatory filings say was founded in 2002 and is based in Santa Barbara, CA, wanted Parscale Digital for help acquiring more companies, Parscale told the Express-News. CloudCommerce announced it was starting its own digital marketing service in July, helping its clients gain more customers by making those consumers more aware of clients’ brands. CloudCommerce was formerly known as Warp 9 and changed its name after acquiring another Denver, CO-based e-commerce company in 2015. The business is traded on the over-the-counter markets.
