WPP Buying Indian Online Ad Agency Quasar

By Rafat Ali Nov. 17, 2007, 5:20am 6 Comments

WPP, the global ad agency holding company, is buying online media agency Quasar Media. This puts to rest the speculation that has been on for some time about WPP’s M&A goals in India. WPP CEO Martin Sorrell announced this on Friday, speaking at the Morgan Stanley technology, media and telecoms conference.

Mumbai-based Quasar is part of the Smile Interactive Group and focuses on online media, search and mobile marketing…it has clients such as Microsoft, (NSDQ: MSFT) and Britain’s Aviva, and works with partners such as Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) and others. Meanwhile, rival Publicis is also on the lookout in India.

Nikhil adds: This is the second big deal for the Smile Interactive group: they’d first divested a stake between 30 and 50 percent in their advertising network Tyroo to Yahoo. These have been fairly early stage deals, and the group continues to launch/incubate more properties. For lucrative exits?