WPP boss Sir Martin Sorrell – who’s been on the prowl since buying online ad firm 24/7 Real Media last year – is close to making another significant acquisition in the digital ad space.
“We’ll be making one or two announcements of further digital acquisitions” this week, Sorrell told Bloomberg News yesterday. The purchases won’t be “big ones,” he said.
Industry insiders believe one potential target is Spot Runner, a Web-based agency that aims to make TV advertising inexpensive for small businesses.
WPP already owns 3 percent of the Los Angeles-based company, with the rest owned by backers including Battery Ventures, Index Ventures, Allen & Co. and Tudor Investment.
Other possibilities include mobile marketing firm JumpTap and video ad network VideoEgg, industry insiders said.
Sorrell has made a series of acquisitions and investments in the digital space in recent years as marketers continue to shift dollars from traditional advertising to the Internet.
Last year, he bought Canadian digital shop Blast Radius and Schematic, an LA-based interactive agency .
WPP acquired 75 percent of Belgium’s Tagora.com NV, which had sales of $5.3 million at the beginning of the year. Sorrell also was rumored to be interested in DoubleClick, which Google agreed to buy in a heated bidding war for more than $3 billion.
Last month, computer giant Dell awarded its advertising account, valued at $4.5 billion over three years, to WPP.