$2.3B buy does not include LiveRamp business

Advertising agency holding company Interpublic Group said it agreed to acquire Acxiom Marketing Solutions for $2.3 billion.

The deal brings IPG Acxiom’s expertise at data management at a time when the advertising and media industries are becoming increasingly dependent on using data to identify consumers and target messages.

"In a world where everything is becoming data-driven, Acxiom Marketing Solutions offers the deepest set of capabilities for helping companies navigate the complexity of creating personalized brand experiences across every consumer touchpoint," said Michael Roth, IPG's chairman and CEO. "Combined with IPG's world-class client roster, as well as our talented 50,000-person global workforce across media, advertising and marketing services, and you have an unrivaled offering. Over the last year of working closely with AMS to power our AMP data platform, we've seen that our cultures are a great fit, and we've also seen that the combination creates value for our clients, as it will for our shareholders.”

The deal does not include Acxiom Corp.’ LiveRamp advertising technology group.

Dennis Self and Rick Erwin will continue to serve as co-presidents of AMS, which will remain a stand-alone division, aligned with IPG Mediabrands, reporting into Arun Kumar, chief data and marketing technology officer, IPG.

IPG said the deal lets it offer clients services including data strategy and management, audience creation, performance media, planning and buying and analytics.

Acxiom Marketing Solutions has 2,100 employees including 1,600 data specialists, 2,000 clients, access to hundreds of marketing databases, recognizes 2.2 billion connected consumers and manages over 20 billion consumer records.

"Everyone knows how valuable data is, but for most businesses it remains an under-leveraged asset. There also remains a great deal of uncertainty on how best to combine data with the creation and delivery of marketing messages. Our goal is to solve for those opportunities," added Philippe Krakowsky, IPG's chief strategy and talent officer and chairman and CEO of IPG Mediabrands. "While marketing and information technology are increasingly converging within client organizations, service providers remain bifurcated. With the skills and capabilities that AMS brings to our portfolio of companies, we can offer clients end-to-end solutions that we believe will change the way in which we work for brands, and accelerate the onset of outcome-driven marketing."