• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, April 3, 2025

At a time when some speculate the agency holding company itself may be on the block, WPP this morning announced it has acquired data cleanroom InfoSum and is folding it into its GroupM media services unit. Before returning to WPP as CEO of GroupM late last year, Brian Lesser was chairman and CEO of InfoSum.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the move follows WPP CEO Mark Read's pronouncement that GroupM is key to the holding company's growth and its ability to narrow its gap with the other major agency holding companies.

AdAge.com notes that InfoSum was valued at around $300 million in 2021 when Lesser was still running the company and before it raised $65 million in a Series B funding round. 

InfoSum lists Interpublic's Acxiom, Accenture and Deloitte among its current partners.

"By integrating InfoSum’s capabilities with WPP Open – WPP’s intelligent marketing operating system – WPP clients can safely unlock the full potential of their customer data, enriched through advanced AI," WPP stated as part of this morning's announcement, adding, "WPP clients will be able to generate new marketing intelligence based on their first-party data and the universe of data signals available to them through the InfoSum network, WPP’s data assets, and GroupM’s media intelligence.

WPP said the deal accelerates its creation of "Intelligence Beyond Identity" for its clients.

As part of the deal, WPP said current InfoSum CEO Lauren Wetzel will remain in that role and take on the additional title of Chief Solutions Officer at GroupM.