August 15, 2011
Interpublic Sells Half Its Stake in Facebook
By STUART ELLIOTT
The Interpublic Group of Companies, which has owned a tiny stake in Facebook since the days the social networking Web site was just for college students, is selling half its holdings for a hefty profit.
Interpublic, which owns advertising and communications agencies like Deutsch, Initiative, McCann Erickson, Mullen and R/GA, acquired its ownership interest in Facebook in 2006.
The interest, amounting to about 0.5 percent of Facebook’s total shares, was bought for less than $5 million. Facebook agreed to sell the shares to Interpublic in exchange for Interpublic’s agreeing to spend $10 million with Facebook for clients of its agencies.
In a statement released on Monday morning, Michael I. Roth, chairman and chief executive at Interpublic, said the shares that are being sold would bring in “approximately $130 million.”
Interpublic acquired the stake as part of efforts to signal to current and potential clients that it was abreast of what was then the fledgling field of social marketing.
The “strategic relationship” with Facebook enabled Interpublic “to fast-track the growth of our social media offerings,” Mr. Roth said.
The above is an excerpt from The New York Times. Copy of the full article can be found here:
http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/interpublic-sells-its-stake-in-facebook/?ref=facebookinc
