What PAKT learned from acquiring Bsmart

At the end of 2021, Bsmart joined what was then Wenneker Group, now PAKT, as part of a broader strategy to expand the group’s creative and production capabilities into the Nordics.

The acquisition gave PAKT a strong Stockholm base, a respected creative production partner, and a team with deep experience across photography, film, 3D, post-production and high-volume content creation.

Four and a half years later, the most important lesson is not only what Bsmart added to PAKT. It is what Bsmart was able to become.

An acquisition is often misunderstood. On paper, it can look like the purchase of a company, a client base, a revenue stream or a capability. In reality, it is the purchase of a moment in time. You acquire a snapshot: the people, culture, offer, momentum and market position that exist at that exact point. But if the ambition is to preserve that snapshot forever, the value of the acquisition can quickly become limited.

The real opportunity lies in evolution

For PAKT, the acquisition of Bsmart was never about freezing the company as it was in late 2021. It was about building on its strengths and giving them room to grow inside a larger European ecosystem.

Akram Janzi, head, PAKT Nordics: “With Bsmart, the goal was never to freeze a successful company in time. The goal was to connect it to a wider Nordic and European platform, and let that open new doors.”

The integration worked because culture and goals were aligned early. Instead of forcing Bsmart into a rigid group structure, the focus was on shared direction: stronger strategy, clearer positioning and more opportunities across markets.

That clarity has become one of the biggest outcomes of the acquisition. Bsmart did not simply remain a standalone creative production house in Stockholm. Within PAKT, its role became part of a wider Nordic and European strategy, connected to sister companies with complementary skills. That has made the offering stronger, more focused and more relevant to international clients.

That shift did not happen by standing still.

One of the clearest signs of the acquisition’s evolution is the emergence of Rabbit’s Foot Studios as a sister company. What could once have remained under one broader Bsmart umbrella has instead developed into a sharper structure, where different capabilities have clearer identities and more focused market roles. This has opened new doors into gaming, entertainment and future-facing content, while also making the Nordic presence stronger than it would have been if everything had remained as one separate company.

This is where acquisitions become difficult, and where they become valuable.

Merging companies is one of the hardest things a group can do. The financial logic may be clear before the deal, but the true cost often arrives afterwards: merging costs, change costs, culture costs.

The biggest profit may even sit in the period before acquisition, when the company is still independent, lean and shaped entirely around its original way of working. After acquisition, the challenge becomes different. It is no longer only about maintaining performance. It is about coaching, decision-making, adapting and creating the conditions for a new phase of growth.

That requires bravery from both sides.

The acquiring group must be brave enough not to over-control. The acquired company must be brave enough not to hold too tightly to the past. Together, they need to accept that change is not a failure of the acquisition. Change is often the proof that the acquisition is working.

For Bsmart, the result has been a broader role inside PAKT than it could have had alone. The company’s Stockholm presence gave PAKT a stronger Nordic foundation. The development of Rabbit’s Foot Studios created new doors into gaming, entertainment and future-facing content. The combined structure has helped PAKT grow not by simply making one company bigger, but by allowing specialist capabilities to become clearer, stronger and more internationally relevant.

That is perhaps the most important learning from the Bsmart journey: do not expect a frozen snapshot in time to continue. See the company as a changing entity. Let it evolve alongside the group.

As PAKT continues to look for acquisitions in the Nordics and explore new business ventures across the group, the Bsmart story offers a clear principle for the future. The goal is not to acquire companies and keep them exactly as they are. The goal is to understand what makes them valuable, protect what matters and create the conditions for them to grow into something even more relevant.

An acquisition should not be the end of a company’s story. Done well, it is the beginning of its next chapter.

Discover how PAKT can help shape your next stage of growth, partnership or creative business venture.

www.pakt.co

www.bsmart.se

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