Several private equity firms – including TPG, Apax, Bain Capital and Cinven – are considering making a bid to buy marcoms giant WPP’s market research division Kantar, according to an article in yesterday’s Sunday Times.
Last October, WPP began a formal process to review the future ownership of Kantar, after reporting that revenue for its DIM division had fallen 4.9% during the second quarter to £640m. The division (previously known as Consumer Insights) houses Kantar companies including Kantar TNS, Kantar Millward Brown and Lightspeed, along with many specialist firms.