Interpublic Picks Up Small Stake in Facebook; $10 Million Ad Spend Promised

Somehow missed this on Friday…Ad agency holding group Interpublic Group is close to a deal with Facebook that would give it a small piece of the operation…IPG will spend up to $10 million for clients on Facebook in exchange for a 0.5 percent stake in the startup, the story says. Such a deal would give IPG opportunities beyond display advertising to include IPG mining Facebook for market research trends among its young user base.
According to the story, this IPG investment would imply a $2 billion valuation, something played up in a BW story earlier this year. It is not so simple and straightforward, but hey, who’s counting.
Linking up with IPG could further Facebook’s development of an ad model. The site has not concentrated on advertising, relying on third-party ad networks for many of the placements on its site.

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