Japan's Dentsu to buy U.S. advertising firm

http://www.reuters.com/article/marketsNews/idINT18080820081112?rpc=44

Dentsu Inc (4324.T: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Japan's biggest advertising firm, is in talks to acquire McGarry Bowen, one of the largest independent advertising companies in New York, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday.

Dentsu has long struggled to increase its presence in the U.S. market. The company, although ranked the world's fifth-biggest, earns most of revenues in Japan and has been trying to boost business outside its slowing domestic market.

In buying McGarry Bowen, Dentsu would be acquiring an agency with close ties to big marketers, said the WSJ. McGarry Bowen, with about $57 million in revenue last year, counts Hewlett-Packard (HPQ.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and J.P. Morgan Chase among its clients, said the report.

Dentsu, which bought San Francisco-based digital and design firm Attik last year, is looking to get about 30 percent of its revenue from North America by 2010 via organic growth and acquisitions, said the Journal, citing a person familiar with the matter.