Two thousand and seven was a year of acquisitions. So just who bought who? Thankfully, website e-consultancy has got the ball rolling. Here’s our excerpts. Click the link above for their full $12B roster.
WPP Group:
* 24/7 RealMedia – $649m – May
Founded in 1995, 24/7 Real Media provides digital media sales, search marketing, and technology – its media arm is one of the largest CPM media networks, with more than 950 participating sites and 115m monthly unique users worldwide.
The deal will strengthen WPP’s position in online advertising, giving the group added technology and search marketing skills, as well as a presence in Asia.
* Blast Radius – undisclosed – October
Blast Radius, which employs 400 staff, is an interactive agency with experience in building ad campaigns for social networks. It will be aligned with WPP’s Wunderman network.
* Schematic – $100m – September
Schematic specialises in creating branded experiences on emerging digital platforms.
It was recently hired by ITV to design its video-on-demand service and has also done work for the likes of ABC, MTV, CNN and Time Warner.
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Publicis:
* Business Interactif – 137m (pounds) -June
French marketing and advertising group Publicis will merge digital agency Business Interactif, which has offices in France, China and Japan, with its existing digital advertising operation, Digitas.
iCrossing:
* Spannerworks – 10m (pounds) – February
Less than three months after Spannerworks’ main UK search competitor Bigmouthmedia merged with Global Media, UK search marketing agency Spannerworks was acquired by the US digital agency.
* Proxicom – undisclosed – July
The acquisition of the web development agency created the largest privately-held global digital marketing company.
Cossette:
* Dare – 20m (pounds) – July
Cossette acquired the London based interactive marketing agency in a six-year, three-part deal, initially taking a 65.4% ownership stake in the firm.
Syzygy:
* UniqueDigital – undisclosed – March
Unique specialises in search engine marketing, affiliate marketing and online advertising. Clients include Barclaycard, Avis Europe and Sainsbury’s.