OREANDA-NEWS. Dentsu Inc. announced that Aegis Media Italia spa (hereinafter “Aegis Media Italy”), one of its subsidiaries under the umbrella of its global operating unit Dentsu Aegis Network Ltd., has reached an agreement with the principal shareholders of Simple Agency srl, a leading digital marketing agency in Italy, to acquire a 70% stake in the company. Under the terms of the agreement, Simple Agency will become a wholly owned subsidiary of Aegis Media Italy by 2019.

The acquisition of Simple Agency will reinforce the Dentsu Group’s competitiveness in the digital arena in Italy, one of the top 20 advertising markets. Together with the accelerating shift in advertising spend from traditional to digital media, the strengthening of the digital domain in general is becoming an important issue in this market. In light of this situation, along with enhancing the quality of its digital marketing services, the Group will build a strong foundation in the rapidly growing digital performance marketing domain and utilize economies of scale to expand its business.

To date, Aegis Media’s digital performance agency iProspect1 has been at the center of the Group’s digital services business in Italy. Now that Aegis Media Italy has joined forces with Simple Agency, a new generation digital marketing services provider which leverages the potential of digital advertising through a multichannel management model based on display, automated buying, video advertising, performance media, search, mobile and social, the Group has taken a leading position in digital performance marketing in Italy and will further hone its competitive edge in the digital marketing services ecosystem in this important market. A profile of Simple Agency is provided on the following page.

The impact of this transaction on Dentsu’s consolidated financial results for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2014 is expected to be minimal.