Quad is an American printing company based in Sussex, Wisconsin. It was founded on July 13, 1971, by Harry and Elizabeth Quadracci. The company has 39 printing facilities in the United States, as well as facilities throughout Europe, Canada, and Latin America. Quad prints numerous magazines, including Businessweek,Time, Sports Illustrated, People, and Milwaukee Magazine. In July 2010, Quad acquired competitor World Color Press. In August 2010, the company announced that it would be closing five of its plants as part of a consolidation plan related to the acquisition of World Color Press. In November 2010, Quad, Inc acquired Commercial and Specialty Products Printer HGI Company. In July 2011, Quad announced an asset swap with the Transcontinental Inc where Quad would acquire Transcontinental's Mexican assets along with its black and whitebook printing business for U.S. export in exchange for seven of Quad's Canadian facilities. The former Quebecor World plant in Aurora, Ontario is now a TC Transcontinental facility. On January 16, 2013, Quad announced that it completed its acquisition of Vertis Holdings, Inc. In November 2018, Quad announced two major acquisitions: LSC Communications in an all-stock deal for $1.4 billion and advertising agency Periscope for $132 million. On July 12, 2019, Quad announced it was closing its 220,000-square-foot printing plant in Midland, Mich., and laying off the plant's 300 employees. The company said it would hold a career fair to help employees find other jobs and that they would be eligible to transfer to Quad's other printing plants.
Periscope
Quad acquired the advertising agency Periscope in November, 2018. In January 2020, Periscope CEO Elizabeth Ross left and was replaced by an interim CEO from Quad. In June 2020, Periscope announced Cari Bucci-Hulings would join Periscope as its new president, effective July 6. On July 1, 2020, at least five employees at Periscope walked out in protest against Quad, citing "alleged interference by its parent company in Periscope’s social media communications about the Black Lives Matter movement and staffer concerns that Quad was releasing deceptive data about its employee diversity." The walk-out was led by Nathan Young, a group strategy director at Pericope who, weeks earlier, had started a movement to address the "systemic racism that is afflicting our industry." On July 2, 2020, approximately 150 employees walked out, consisting of nearly the entire agency.
