Aegis Group has sold its market research arm Synovate to French group Ipsos for $862 million, concluding talks that began in June and prompting immediate speculation that Aegis itself will go into play and could be a good fit for one of the big agency-holding companies.
The sale leaves Aegis Group focused entirely on media buying and digital marketing. The group's main businesses now are media-buying networks Carat and Vizeum, digital network Isobar, out-of-home specialist Posterscope and digital search company iProspect.
Synovate accounted for $885.4 million of Aegis Group's total revenue in 2010, according to Ad Age's DataCenter,
Ipsos will jump from being the world's fifth-largest market research company to No. 3, said Didier Truchot, Ipsos co-president, in a statement: "This deal will meet our goals to make Ipsos a worldwide brand, synonymous with excellence in each of its fields of specialization and better able to attract and keep clients."
