Millward Brown Buys Ecuadorian Agency Habitus

Brand and media specialist Millward Brown has acquired full-service agency Habitus Investigación, in Ecuador. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Founded in 2002 by Carolina Reed, Margarita Velasco and Francisco Carrion Eguiguren, and with offices in the major cities Quito and Guayaquil, Habitus provides a wide range of qual and quant market and social research services, including statistical analysis, national household surveys, in-depth interviewing and exploratory focus groups. It also has its own national demographic panel, and has developed proprietary software for the design of questionnaires and optical scanning equipment for data entry. The firm employs 80 people, and for the year 2014 expects revenues of US$5m.

WPP has revenues of US$1.6 billion and employs 20,000 people in Latin America, and in Ecuador it already generates almost US$20m and employs more than 400. Worldwide, WPP's data investment management companies (including associates) collectively generate revenues of about US$5 billion and employ over 34,000 people.

Today's news follows the acquisition of Brazil-based IBOPE Media by WPP's Kantar's earlier in the week, and yesterday's announcement that the group had acquired Mexico-based digital agency Clarus.

Web sites: www.wpp.com , www.millwardbrown.com and www.habitus.ec .