UK sector strikes 150 M&A deals

The UK marketing sector witnessed over 150 mergers and acquisitions during 2013, according a new study which shows there were nearly 1,000 deals worldwide, worth a disclosed value of $23.6bn.
The Results International research found that WPP was the most active marketing group, having struck 53 deals around the world. Publicis Groupe was second on 23 deals, followed by Dentsu Aegis with 20 and Omnicom on 16.
Of the sector, 94 were for full service digital companies, 76 for public relations agencies and 74 for mobile businesses.
The biggest deal was Publicis $3.7bn (£2.3bn) acquisition of SapientNitro, while others include Cheil buying a stake in Iris for £26m, and Lake Capital’s £100m acquisition of Engine.
Major deals in the direct and digital marketing sector saw Communisis buy Geronimo, The Communications Agency, Public Creative and Jacaranda, and then rebrand them the Psona Group.
Meanwhile, St Ives Group struck a £50m deal for The Hive Group and a £21.7m acquisition of digital marketing agency Realise. In addition Jaywing paid £12m for search marketing specialist Epiphany and Transactis snapped up GB Group for £6m.
Sectors with a high percentage of cross border deals were found to be media (44.4%), marketing research (39.5%), social media (38.2%) and full service digital (36.2%).
In terms of region, 410 deals took place in North America, 176 in APAC, 151 within the UK, 152 in Western Europe, 27 in Eastern Europe, 26 in Africa, 25 in South America and 5 in the Middle East.

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