Interpublic Sells Half Its Facebook Stake For $133 Mil, Uses It To Repurchase Shares

Interpublic may initially have acquired a stake in Facebook for strategic reasons, but it's realizing a considerable profit, according to a transaction disclosed this morning in a filing to the Securities & Exchange Commission. Interpublic, the parent of Initiative, Universal McCann, Reprise Media and other media and full-service agencies said it has agreed to sell about half its stake in the social network in a "privately negotiated" transaction that will net it $133 million in cash.

Interpublic did not disclose the buyer of the stake, but said it would record a $132 million pre-tax gain on the transaction, and that it would use the proceeds to help fund a previously repurchase of between $300 million and $450 million shares of Interpublic stock.

Interpublic said it has already acquired 16.8 million shares of Interpublic stock, for about $187.5 million in cash, including fees, and that the repurchase program has no expiration date.

Interpublic did not disclose what its remaining stake in Facebook will be, but Chairman-CEO Michael Roth stated that, "when an attractive opportunity to divest a portion of our position recently presented itself, we decided that it made sense to do so."

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1 comment about "Interpublic Sells Half Its Facebook Stake For $133 Mil, Uses It To Repurchase Shares".
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  1. Mark Walker from aka Media Mark, August 15, 2011 at 11:33 a.m.

    And what was their percentage of Facebook? We can them calculate an aggregate value for FB.

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