Kantar Eyes Bigger Acquisitions with Bain Cash

Following Friday's announcement that WPP is to sell 60% of Kantar to private equity firm Bain Capital, more details are emerging of the firm's plans, including possible eCommerce acquisitions and expansion of services like Kantar Marketplace.

Kantar's leadership, including CEO Eric Salama will stay in place following the transition from WPP, which is expected to take between six and nine months. Salama told online publication www.businessinsider.in that WPP will have two seats on Kantar's board but that his firm will not rely on WPP for resources. Under WPP's wing the insight division might have spent an annual $30-40m on acquisitions - its share of WPP's $200m per annum war chest - but Salama told Business Insider: 'In a market like ours where analytics, e-commerce and data are at the heart, that wouldn't buy you a lot. There's a real commitment from the Bain Capital people to invest more in acquisitions to help us grow certain parts of the business that we couldn't do organically'.

Meanwhile media paper Campaign Asia talked to Bain MD Luca Bassi who said he anticipated 'a mix of internal technological investment, people investment to bring on board stronger people capabilities and also external investment, because we have seen there are a lot of small companies - technology disruptors - in the market [that Kantar could buy]'.

Salama (pictured) believes that Kantar should focus more on its own offer than on specific competitors: 'What we need to do is be relevant and contemporary, and offer impact and value for our clients. The real competition is not another company'. As part of this, the company intends to expand services such as recently launched self-serve research portal Kantar Marketplace and smartphone- and receipt-based purchase behaviour monitor Worldpanel Plus.

Thanks to www.warc.com , www.campaignasia.com and www.businessinsider.in for much of the above. Kantar's home page is at www.kantar.com .