WPP’s GroupM announces acquisition of IEG Inc.
WPP’s GroupM announces acquisition of IEG Inc.
26 April 2006 – NEW YORK and CHICAGO. For immediate release – WPP’s GroupM today announced the acquisition of Chicago-based IEG, Inc., the world’s leading provider of research, analytics, strategic counsel and training on sponsorship, strategic alliances and promotional partnerships.
IEG’s groundbreaking metrics embed predictability and accountability into sponsorship, allowing companies to value, maximize and measure their participation in sports, arts, entertainment, experiential, on line, affinity and cause marketing.
“Sponsorship is tailor made for a world where consumers are in control. It communicates without interrupting and allows brands to build financial and social capital by partnering with the organizations and experiences that their customers love,” said IEG co-founder Lesa Ukman, who becomes IEG’s Chairman.
“IEG’s ability to transform sponsorship from an intangible expense to a measurable investment is spot-on with GroupM’s commitment to increasing the productivity of client expenditures through integrated, channel-neutral communications,” said Charles Courtier, Executive Chairman of Mediaedge:cia, on behalf of GroupM North America.
We selected to work with the GroupM agencies over the other bidders because their leadership, capabilities and geographic reach are simply unmatched,” said Laren Ukman, who becomes CEO of IEG. She will report to Courtier. All IEG employees will be retained.
About IEG, Inc.
No firm has been as influential as IEG in establishing sponsorship as an industry and communications medium. With the 1984 launch of its newsletter, IEG Sponsorship Report, the Company envisioned and defined an industry that today is worth more than $30 billion worldwide.
IEG also created the protocol for determining the fair market value of sponsorship. The IEG Valuation Service has valued more than 1,000 opportunities-from televised events like FIFA World Cup and X Games to destinations, associations, Web sites and causes like Pebble Beach, AARP, Boys Choir of Harlem, Chicago Park District, Sciencebuddies.com and World Wildlife Fund.
The Company works with some 5,000 organizations each year-from the NFL, Kennedy Center and the American Heart Association to Credit Suisse, Verizon Wireless and General Motors.
IEG does not sell sponsorship or collect commission. Its objectivity combined with its vast electronic databases, highly specialized staff and work with leading sponsors and rightsholders, provides the Company unduplicated access to the newest and best practices from both the buy and sell sides of the market.
IEG also has broken new ground in Strategic Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility, providing both corporations and not-for-profits strategies, tools and training to leverage and maximize community affairs and philanthropic budgets.
Additional information on IEG and its three operating groups-Advisory and Valuation Services, Events and Training, and Information Services-can be found online at Sponsorship.com.
DeSilva & Phillips, LLC, a New York investment broker specializing in mergers and acquisitions to the marketing communications, media, interactive and information services industries, represented IEG in the transaction.
About GroupM
GroupM, one of the world’s leading full service media investment management operation, was created by WPP Group to oversee its assets in this sector. These assets include Mediaedge:cia, MindShare, MediaCom and MAXUS. The focus of GroupM is the intelligent application of volume and scale in trading, innovation and quality of services, in order to bring benefit to clients and the companies it operates.