Braun & Co. Is Acquired by Ketchum

Ketchum Communications, which operates one of the nation’s largest public relations firms and some advertising agencies, said Wednesday that it bought Braun & Co., a Los Angeles-based public relations firm whose clients include Walt Disney Productions and Kaiser Steel.

The acquisition, Ketchum’s sixth since 1987, will continue the company’s effort to concentrate resources in major markets such as Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, said Ketchum President Gerald J. Voros. It would also increase Ketchum Public Relations’ strength in Braun’s specialties--public affairs counseling and investor relations.

Closely held Braun--founded in 1930--is the West Coast’s oldest public relations firm. The company has an impressive client list. But in recent years it had questioned whether it was in its best interest to remain independent, Chairman Clifford A. Miller, one of the seven stockholders, said in an interview.

“It was increasingly clear that we were fighting an uphill battle to compete for major business,” said Miller, who joined Braun in 1955 at the urging of founder Ted Braun. Currently executive vice president and a director of Great Western Financial Corp., Miller will also become a senior consultant to Ketchum Public Relations and will continue in a counseling role at Braun. Great Western is among Braun’s clients.

Miller said every major public relations firm during the past five years sought out Braun as a merger partner, but the firm declined. “Ketchum was more persistent and perceptive,” he said, explaining that other firms offered increased market share--basically in the same business as Braun. But Ketchum--”more of a marketing organization than we are”--offered more of a broad base and was interested in using Braun’s special strengths, he said.

The acquisition of Braun “will give us an even stronger capability to handle issues and crisis communications,” said David Drobis, president of Ketchum Public Relations, the seventh-largest U.S. public relations firm.

Ketchum Communications, a 66-year-old closely held marketing communications firm, began an aggressive acquisition program in 1987 with the purchase of two ad agencies in New York and Chicago. Its 1989 billings are expected to total $850 million. It is the largest public relations firm in San Francisco and has a public relations office in the Silicon Valley.

Ketchum declined to disclose the purchase price for Braun.