One Technology Marketing PR Agency of the year swallows up another? Well, not exactly -- but San Francisco-based Applied Communications (our 2002 winner) and Text 100 (our 2003 winner) are intensifying their links.

Yesterday, the agencies announced that Applied Amsterdam is being merged with Text 100 Amsterdam. That move follows last month's acquisition of Applied Communications by Next Fifteen Communications Group, which is Text 100's parent company.

Under that deal -- expected to close later this year -- Next Fifteen will merge Applied’s San Francisco PR division with its Bite Communications Group subsidiary, creating an agency with $14 million in revenue and in excess of 100 employees. Clive Armitage, ceo of Bite Communications Group, will relocate from London to San Francisco to oversee the company.

Alan Kelly, Applied's founder and ceo, will consult to Next Fifteen through the remainder of the year to help in the transition of Applied’s clients and staff to Bite. Meanwhile, the "Applied Analytics" division of Applied will continue as an independent business led by Forrest Anderson.

With completion of the Applied purchase, Bite will gain all of Applied’s San Francisco PR clients, including Autodesk Location Services, BEA Systems, SeeBeyond, TechNet, VeriSign and Wind River. And, as per yesterday's announcement, Text 100 Amsterdam will take on European representation of many of the same clients -- Autodesk Location Services, Siebel, NAI and VeriSign.

"We see a natural fit between the Applied team and our existing Dutch organization," says Aedhmar Hynes, ceo of Text 100. We intend to build a center of PR excellence in Amsterdam that combines local knowledge with strong European wide media and analyst capabilities."