• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, June 14, 2012

WPP is in talks to buy media-monitoring company Press Index. The estimated value of the company is more than $17 million per WPP. The company's annual revenues are estimated to exceed $20 million. 

The companies confirmed that they are holding exclusive negotiations for the 87% of the company that is held by the founders and other shareholders.

If those talks are completed, WPP would issue an all-cash tender offer for the outstanding publicly traded shares. The price offered for those shares would be about $10.60, per WPP. The company is listed on the Alternext NYSE Euronext exchange in Paris.

Founded in 1997, Press Index is one of the larger European outfits offering monitoring services to PR firms, their clients and other marketers. They help them understand what the press and public say about their companies and products in the online and offline sectors.

The London-based company, currently overseen by co-founder and CEO Manuel Zebeida, claims more than 4,500 clients worldwide. It monitors over 60,000 media sources.

Press Index went public in 2006 and launched a search engine to track pan-European media in 2009. A year later, it unveiled its social media monitoring platform.

Clients include Procter & Gamble, McDonald’s, Google, Weber Shandwick and Havas.