• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, April 6, 2017

IPG Mediabrands has acquired a majority stake in Finnish media agency and digital consultancy Virta for an undisclosed sum.  Virta founder and CEO Mika Hayrinen will run the combined Mediabrands and Virta operations in the country.  He’ll report to Mediabrands Nordics CEO Michael Thim.

For Mediabrands the acquisition is the fourth in the EMEA (Europe Middle East Africa) region in the last 18 months, including two UK-based firms, mobile tech company Mubaloo and digital marketing firm StickyEyes Group.

Helsinki-based Virta was founded in 2008 and had billings last year of 61 million euro (about $65 million). The Group’s holdings include a research firm, Kuulas and programmatic arm R3Al. They’ll operate alongside Mediabrands units Reprise (search), Cadreon (programmatic) and Marvellous (social).