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."