WPP's Holiday Shopping Spree

When WPP CEO Martin Sorrell spoke at the UBS media conference in New York on December 9 he told attendees the company would continue its acquisition strategy of making smaller deals in new media sectors and new markets. He also said the company wasn’t finished doing deals this year.

That turned out to be an understatement. Since then the company has made eight transactions, either acquiring firms outright or making majority or minority investments.

The latest, announced today, is an acquisition by GroupM of a majority interest in ClickMedia, a social media marketing agency in Vietnam.

Terms weren’t disclosed but WPP said the firm generated about $1.1 million in revenues last year.

Established in 2008, ClickMedia has a staff of 55 and counts as clients Unilever (also one of WPP’s biggest clients), Estee Lauder and Piaggio.

“As a full service social media agency ClickMedia delivers cohesive conversations across strategic platforms and channels and will make significant contributions to GroupM and its clients throughout the region,” stated GroupM CEO Asia Pacific Mark Patterson.

advertisement

advertisement

Hai Ha, founder and managing director ClickMedia will continue to run the agency.

It’s the second acquisition by GroupM in as many weeks. Last week it bought a majority stake in Singapore-based social shop Vocanic.

Earlier this week WPP confirmed taking a 30% stake in Richard Attias & Associates, a strategic consultant and event and conference organizer, including The World Economic Forum in Davos and The Clinton Global Initiative.

In the past two weeks WPP subsidiaries Grey, Millward Brown, Kantar and 24/7 Media have also done deals.  

Next story loading loading..