The owners of research company Kantar Worldpanel, global advertising agency WPP and investment firm Bain Capital, are considering selling the company for an estimated £5 billion ($6.5 billion), according to Sky News.
Initial stories focused on the possibility of the two companies weighing up an IPO. However, in a separate story, the Financial Times reported that the pair are likely to break Kantar up and sell in parts to maximise profits.
In January, Kantar sold its audience rating division to H.I.G Capital for roughly $1 billion and merged Worldpanel with acquired data firm Numerator earlier this year.
In light of this merger, Numerator’s CEO Eric Belcher described how their data is used with AI to inform marketing decisions. He said: “Brands, retailers, economists, and Wall Street analysts rely on permissioned, differentiated data to stay ahead of consumer trends. Numerator and Worldpanel capture over one million global shopping trips daily, and we use patented methodology to process them.
“Our ownership of this data ensures that it is complete and unrestricted, meeting the growing demand for domain-specific data to fuel AI models.”
This division, which is the fastest growing department of Kantar, could be sold as soon as this year.
WPP bought Kantar in 2008 and later sold 60% of the company to Bain in 2019 for £3.2 billion, maintaining a minority shareholding.
The agency is reportedly in talks to sell its stake in the research company, that provides data from over five billion consumers globally, or reach a deal with Bain Capital to take full ownership.
If the sale goes through, WPP stands to benefit after reporting a difficult financial year in its latest earnings report – its share price dropped 20 percent – a £42 million profit drop.
