In the advertising agency and marketing services businesses you have probably heard regular references to giant holding companies that own and sit in top of all kinds of big and small companies that make up their eco-systems.
The numbers of those giant holding companies just got smaller overnight with word that #5 is size, Tokyo-based Dentsu, just acquired #6, London-based Aegis Group.
That would make the newer, bigger Dentsu as big or close to as big as #4, Interpublic.
The board and key managers of Aegis agreed to an offer valued at $5 billion. Reuters reports Dentsu is paying a 48 percent premium to secure the takeover, which is something like 20X earnings – or about twice what is typical for valuations.
Wow. Musta really wanted to do this deal.
The Aegis Media company that is directly relevant to this sector is Posterscope, which is a huge global player in out of home strategy and buying and does some $2B in annual billings. Aegis also has Carat, iProspect, Isobar and Vizeum.