Nielsen Files for $1.75 Billion I.P.O.

http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/06/03/nielsen-joins-list-of-expected-p-e-backed-i-p-os/

Nielsen Holdings, a market research giant, filed Thursday for a $1.75 billion initial public offering.

Taken private in 2006 in a $10 billion leveraged buyout by six private equity firms led by Thomas H. Lee Partners and Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Nielsen is the most notable of recent private-equity backed listings.

In its prospectus, the company said it had revenue of $4.8 billion last year, with a net loss of $489 million — about $100 million less than the previous year.

Indie Shops Reap Digital Profits

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i6478fc41cf5464a5a945efbd72a978c8

It's not just that independent, owner-operated ad agencies are offering digital and interactive services, finds a survey released this week by Worldwide Partners. Many are making a profit on it, too.

The global survey was conducted last month among CEOs at agencies that comprise Worldwide Partners Inc., an international network of owner-operated shops. Sixty-nine percent of respondents said their firm offers digital/interactive services in-house, with another 22 percent saying they outsource such work. Forty-nine percent said digital work is "currently profitable for the agency." Just 15 percent said it isn't profitable, with most of the rest saying they don't separately track the profitability (or, as the case may be, unprofitability) of digital work.

Among those who do track digital separately and get a profit from it, just over one-third said the profit margin is better than 20 percent, while a similar proportion said it's in the 11-to-20-percent range.

Even in a period of widespread retrenchment in the advertising sector, 59 percent of respondents said the number of people they have working on digital has increased in the past 12 months. Looking ahead, 88 percent said they expect their digital staffing to increase in the next 12 months. Atop the list of digital job categories in which respondents expect to add staff in this period are project managers, Web-site designers, content developers and interactive media planners/buyers, as well as statistical Web analysts and social-marketing experts.

As things stand, the respondents' agencies rely on a mix of "dedicated" digital staffers and people who work on digital and non-digital projects alike. In creative, for instance, 34 percent said they have dedicated staff for digital work, while 54 percent said "creative people work on all kinds of creative projects, including digital."

Aegis Shakes Up Isobar

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=128659


Aegis Media on Thursday announced the creation of a new structure for Isobar, which transforms the digital marketing services division into an "agency network."

As such, the new Isobar comprises those companies within the division that currently create communication assets for clients, incorporating creative, planning, technology and data services.
The point of the change was to create a global full-service capability for clients, according to Mark Cranmer -- who will continue in his role as the global CEO of Isobar. Cranmer called the Isobar "a potent challenger network in the dramatically changing industry landscape."
Effective immediately, the operating units within the Isobar agency network will all now incorporate the new Isobar brand identity.

This transition is expected to begin with immediate effect for all existing Isobar branded units, as well as within the network's five key markets: the UK through glue Isobar); the USA and Canada through Isobar North America); Brazil through AgenciaClick Isobar; Greater China through Wwwins Isobar; and France through Isobar France.

Jerry Buhlmann, CEO Aegis Group, said the shift was the result of increasing client demand for integrated campaigns and brand strategies on a global scale.

"The Isobar agency network will enable us to provide more coherent high-quality delivery to our clients throughout the world," Buhlmann said.

At the North America level of the agency, the restructuring involves the complete integration of four separate digital brands -- Ammo Marketing, Freestyle Interactive, Mindblossom and Molecular, Inc. -- into one Isobar North America brand.

In addition, Pedro Cabral, the founder of digital agency AgenciaClick, and chairman of Isobar global, has been named Interim President of Isobar North America. Pedro will be operating out of Isobar's Boston location.

Buhlmann only took on the role of CEO, most recently serving as head of global media operations. He succeeded John Napier, who held the top post in an interim role and remains chairman at the holding company.

Globally, Aegis said Isobar made up 31% of total revenue in 2009. Presently, Isobar clients include Nokia, Coca-Cola, Adidas, Reebok, Bacardi and P&G.

Newspaper ad revenue decline slows

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100528/MEDIABUSINESS/100529891/1078/newsletter011

Overall newspaper advertising revenue declined to $5.98 billion in the first quarter, a drop of 9.70% from the year-earlier period, according to Newspaper Association of America figures. It marked the industry’s best overall quarterly performance since the third quarter of 2007, which was also a decline.

Online ad revenue posted a 4.90% gain to $730.42 million. It was the first quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2008.

Overall print revenue fell to $5.25 billion, a decline of 11.42%. Classified ad revenue fell to $1.25 billion, a decline of 14.37%.

Alliance Data Systems to acquire Equifax’s direct marketing unit

http://www.btobonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100603/FREE/100609962/1115/FREE#seenit

Alliance Data Systems Corp., parent of multichannel marketing company Epsilon, has reached an agreement to acquire the direct marketing services division of Equifax Inc. for $117 million.
The Equifax unit offers database marketing and hosting, as well as data services that include U.S. customer demographic information. The unit and its approximately 200 employees will be integrated into Epsilon’s targeting and marketing technology group.
The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of this year, pending regulatory approval.

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100602-706825.html?mod=WSJ_Deals_LEFTLatestHeadlines

Hearst Buys ICrossing, Signals Further Agency Deals

http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=144207

Hearst today confirmed it's acquiring digital agency iCrossing for approximately $325 million

Though Hearst wasn't after a search shop, the publisher was attracted to how iCrossing integrates search into its other digital marketing services, said Matthew Petersen, senior VP-Hearst Magazines. "What is compelling about search is how performance-driven, below-the-line marketing is the foundation for other services [iCrossing has] created, and helps in search-engine optimization and web development," he said. "As social and search dovetail more, that primary foundation is incredibly important."

Hearst is taking a page from Meredith, which has been the poster boy for publishers getting into digital marketing. Mr. Petersen, a Meredith alum who joined Hearst in March, will head a new business unit, Hearst Marketing Services, which iCrossing will fall under. ICrossing will operate as a separate operating unit and keep its name.

"ICrossing is going to operate very independently; where appropriate, we'll bring them in," Mr. Petersen said. "But our No. 1 priority is to support and fuel its independent growth."
Frank A. Bennack, Hearst's vice chairman-CEO, may not be putting away his wallet quite yet.

"I expect [Hearst] will continue to add, but we're not rushing to add tomorrow," Mr. Scales said.
Hearst's acquisition strategy is quite different than Meredith's. The latter has acquired a number of small marketing services shops over the years, while Heart is swallowing one large agency right from the start. Hearst's size drives this different approach, Mr. Petersen said.

"We needed a sizable asset with a large amount of capabilities and capacity," he said. "Hearst is 10 times what Meredith is."

This acquisition leaves only two large, independent digital agencies in the market: Hamilton, N.J.-based Rosetta, which is looking for acquisitions rather than buyers, and private equity-backed AKQA, San Francisco.

http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i0179550940df36d1658effb93dc5405b

The acquisition nets the owner of newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle and magazines including Cosmopolitan a 600-person digital shop with its roots in search marketing and optimization. In recent years, iCrossing has beefed up its capabilities in Web creative, analytics and social media.

After Buying Up Online-Ad Specialists, Publicis CEO Seeks to Make Them Grow

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703406604575278763523517680.html

"There is nothing big left to buy," Mr. Lévy, chief executive of Publicis, said in an interview Monday.

"However, digital advertising still heralds many unknown opportunities."
Mr. Lévy's 23-year tenure as head of Publicis has been marked by aggressive acquisitions. In recent years, those deals have been focused on digital advertising, as companies have shifted more ad spending to the Internet and away from conventional media like print and television.

Publicis bought the online-marketing business Digitas for $1.3 billion in 2007. It bought search-marketing business Performics from Google Inc. in 2008. Last summer, it paid Microsoft Corp. $530 million for Razorfish, the last big digital agency up for grabs.

In 2009 Publicis made more than a quarter of its €4.52 billion ($5.55 billion) revenue from digital ads, more than its Dublin-based rival WPP PLC or U.S behemoth Omnicom Group Inc.—respectively the world's biggest and second-biggest advertising agencies, ahead of No. 3 Publicis.

Industry analysts agree that digital advertising will be a major growth driver. But they say that marketers still need to crack how to make bigger profits by better targeting audiences and measuring the impact of ads.

"The benefit in the short term is that [digital] is faster growing," says Thomas Singlehurst, an analyst at Citigroup. "But are the returns in digital the same as those in traditional marketing services? These are slight unknowns."