British multinational advertising and public relations company WPP (LSE: WPP) (NASDAQ: WPPGY.US) announced today that it has agreed to acquire Bottle Rocket, a full-service mobile solution provider based in the United States.
Bottle Rocket, founded in 2008, creates iPhone, iPad and Android apps for leading brands. Its unaudited revenue for the previous 12 months ended September 2013 was US$17 million. Clients include NPR, Scripps Networks, ABC News, National Geographic and NBC Universal. Based in Dallas, Texas, the company employs approximately 170 people.
This investment by WPP is part of the strategy to strengthen its capabilities in digital media and in mobile advertising. In August, WPP Digital, the digital investment arm of WPP, acquired a minority interest in Mutual Mobile, an Austin, Texas-based mobile product development agency.
This strategy may be starting to pay off for WPP, as its third-quarter numbers recently reported were ahead of what the market was expecting.
WPP’s digital revenues were well over US $5 billion in 2012 and represented 33% of total Group revenues of US $16.5 billion. The Group said it is targeting at least 40-45% of revenues to come from each of fast-growth markets and new media over the next five years.
Also in the third quarter, like-for-like revenue growth was up 5%, while total revenue growth increased 7.4% to £2.68bn, against £2.50bn in Q3 2012.
