The World: London - WPP acquires stakes in three comms companies

With Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP's chief executive, insisting marcoms groups must branch out beyond their traditional expertise, the company has reached a collaboration agreement with the US web-analytics company Omniture, in which it has invested $25 million.

At the same time, it has acquired a 49 per cent stake in The Jupiter Drawing Room in Johannesburg, Africa's largest independent agency group. The third deal involves Smart Media, the Vietnamese marketing communications company, in which WPP is taking a 20 per cent share.

This article was first published on Campaign