Mattson Jack Joins WPP/Kantar Network

BOSTON WPP’s information and consultancy division, The Kantar Group, has acquired The Mattson Jack Group, a St. Louis-based healthcare consultancy.

Mattson Jack will remain a standalone entity within Fairfield, Conn.-based Kantar, offering market research, strategic planning, analytics and other consulting services. Mattson Jack co-founders and CEOs Bill Mattson and Bill Jack will remain in their roles, reporting directly to Kantar CEO Eric Salama.

“We are committed to building our healthcare capabilities, and Mattson Jack will be the cornerstone of our consulting capabilities,” said Jeff Krentz, executive vice president, corporate development and strategy at Kantar.

As part of the WPP/Kantar Group network, Mattson Jack will coordinate with other WPP agencies on marketing projects. “Many of the larger ad agencies within WPP have pharmaceutical clients, and certainly some of the services we offer fit nicely with the other divisions’ interests,” Mattson said.

Agencies with major pharmaceutical clients include Ogilvy Healthcare, CommonHealth and Feinstein Kean Healthcare.

None of the company’s 100 employees will leave as a result of the transaction, according to Mattson.

Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

With six offices in the U.S. and U.K., Mattson Jack counts among its clients AstraZeneca, Aventis, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer.