Ipsos confirms that it is working on the acquisition of audience company Kantar Media

With the press release published today, Ipsos has come out in response to news that the agency announced Reuters last week, assuring that it was true but qualifying it. «There is no certainty that an offer will be made or about the terms of that offer. “It cannot be assured that these discussions will lead to an agreement,” the company said.

The French group has indicated that this operation is part of its strategy of periodically evaluating investment opportunities “that can strengthen its position in the market.” From there, Ipsos has decided that it will not make any further comments on the negotiation until it has materialized into a concrete event.

The news is important in Spain because, as has already been stated, in our country Kantar Media It is responsible for audience measurement almost exclusively. Through the audiometers installed in 5,720 homesthe company collects data from the most viewed programs and channels.

It is an old business in Spain, essential to know the performance of the chains, and which in recent years has been forced to modernize so as not to fall into oblivion. Currently, Kantar no longer only offers television audience data, but with the rise of new forms of audiovisual consumption, the company is in a constant process of innovation.

At the beginning of this year, Kantar Media published the first data on multiplatform audiovisual consumption in Spain, offering a global vision of the audiovisual consumption through unified metrics in order to show the distribution of the audience through percentages. These measurements were possible thanks to the Kantar Media platform Cross-Platfrom Viewa system developed by the company to take into account, apart from traditional audiences, those of streaming services.

For its part, Ipsos is a multinational market research and consulting company based in Paris. It was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot and Jean-Marc Lechwho still run it today. During its nearly 50-year history, the company has experienced considerable international expansion, and currently operates in more than 50 countries. Among its shareholders is, with a 40% stake, the Artemis group, owner of brands such as Gucci or Balenciaga, directed by François Pinaultconsidered one of the richest men in the world.

One of its main fields of work is the realization of electoral pollswith the recent case of the US elections. Next to the television network ABCIpsos has carried out numerous surveys throughout the election campaign. In Spain, for its part, Ipsos is responsible for carrying out electoral polls, The last of them being one in collaboration with the newspaper La Vanguardia to measure the voting intention of Spaniards after the DANA tragedy.

Aside from politics, Ipsos carries out studies on many other issues and realities. «Global attitudes towards refugees», «What worries the world?» or “Global Reliability Index” are the names of recent surveys carried out by the French group, sometimes in collaboration with institutions such as UNHCR.

One of the most important aspects in an acquisition process between companies is the valuation of each one. Ipsos is valued at about 1.9 billion euros, while Kantar Media is valued around 1.2 billion. It would not be the first time that both companies have joined forces, since since 2021 they have been jointly responsible for audience measurement in the Netherlands. For its part, Kantar alone manages the measurement of television audiences in United Kingdomand provides audience data in more than 60 countries.

The history of Ipsos involves the acquisition of numerous companies, in order to consolidate its international presence as leaders in the market research sector. With the foreseeable merger of Kantar Media, the French group begins its foray into audience measurement, further expanding its area of ​​influence.