Ipsos declines to make Kantar Media offer

Late last week, Ipsos released a statement confirming that it was in discussions over the purchase of Kantar Media, but said no concrete offer had been made.

However, in a new statement, Ipsos said that “after careful review of a potential acquisition of Kantar Media, Ipsos has, at this time, decided not to submit a binding offer”.

The negotiations follow a report in the Sunday Times in November that said that several companies were interested in buying Kantar Media, and estimated the value of any potential deal to be around £1bn.

Kantar Media is part of Kantar, which is jointly owned by private equity company Bain Capital and advertising firm WPP, with Kantar having been founded as WPP’s market research division in 1992.

WPP sold a 60% stake in Kantar Group to Bain Capital in 2019 that valued the company at around £3.2bn.