Sir Martin Sorrell's WPP has acquired a majority stake in London digital agency Fortune Cookie for an undisclosed sum.
Founded in 1997 by Justin Cooke, the current chair of the British Interactive Media Association, Fortune Cookie employs over 190 people and its clients include Canon, AEGON and BP.
Fortune Cookie's consolidated revenues for the year ended 31 August 2011 were approximately £9.4 million with gross assets as at the same date of approximately £2.8 million.
It will now work as part of WPP's interactive marketing network Possible Worldwide, which has 26 offices around the globe and around 1500 staff. It is understood that the Fortune Cookie name will be shed and Cooke will become the UK CEO of Possible.
The deal indicates WPP's increasing desire for digital, coming less than two months after the group bought AKQA for £350m.
WPP's digital revenues totalled $4.8 billion in 2011, representing approximately 30% of the group's total revenues of over US$16 billion. It has set a target of 35-40% of revenue to be derived from digital in the next five years.
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Great news and not a surprise to pick up another well known agency into their fold.
I think the future for many digital agencies will be for the larger networks to acquire the digital agencies and gain the experience of the company and not just individuals.
Digital is still relatively new as an industry and many agencies do not have the big financial backing to go international in a short period. The backing of a group can give massive acceleration.
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