• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, November 29, 2011

WPP has agreed to acquire the Washington D.C.-based Glover Park Group, the holding company confirmed Tuesday.

The Glover Park Group would be the latest of several D.C.-based communications firms owned by WPP. Earlier this year, it bought Blue State Digital, the company behind the grassroots online campaign for President Obama when he was running for office in 2008. Blue State is credited with helping then-candidate Obama raise hundreds of millions of dollars, mobilizing the youth vote and subsequently winning the election.

WPP said the acquisition was subject to regulatory approval, and a company rep confirmed that the deal needed signoff from the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, the two groups that oversee enforcement of the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act.

Founded in 2001, The Glover Park Group employs 140 people, and has total assets of approximately $75 million, per WPP.

In media circles, the firm is perhaps best known for orchestrating the “Don’t Count Us Out” campaign on behalf of News Corp.’s Fox TV station group in 2004 after Nielsen made the switch to people meters to measure local TV ratings. The campaign led to changes in Nielsen’s methodology to address undercounting of minority groups in some markets.

“Don’t Count Us Out,” also spurred Nielsen to create the Council for Research Excellence, with an annual budget of several million dollars to “advance the knowledge and practice of methodological research on audience measurement through the active collaboration of The Nielsen Company and its clients,” as company documents define the mission.

In addition to its Washington headquarters, The Glover Park Group has offices in New York, Los Angeles and Boulder, Colo. Services offered include PR, government affairs, opinion research, crisis communications, digital strategy and advertising and brand positioning.

Assuming the deal goes through, Glover Park would be the latest brand to join WPP’s PR group, which the holding company said now accounts for almost 10% of its annual revenue. The company’s other PR shops include Hill & Knowlton, Ogilvy Public Relations, Burson-Marsteller, Cohn & Wolfe, RLM Finsbury, Buchanan, Hering Schuppener and Clarion Communications.