According to a report in The Wall Street Journal the French advertising firm, headed by chairman Alain de Pouzilhac, has received at least one proposal from a rival, which is interested in buying as much as 49% of MPG.
The paper says that the offer has not come with a price tag, although a stake could be valued at as much as £80m, and does not indicate which of the larger rival ad holding companies the approach came from.
There are several possible candidates that would be interested in MPG, which desperately needs to find a partner to bolster its international reach. The group is world's 10th-largest media network by billings, which on the international media map makes it a bit-part player.
MPG in the UK had a terrible year following the loss of the £58m Orange media planning and buying business to Initiative, while Havas lost out on another potential partner when WPP Group beat it to CIA owner Tempus.
Losing Tempus and a marriage with CIA means that MPG remains weak in parts of Europe and in the US.
Havas has previously ruled out an acquisition strategy to grow the agency, ruling out any bid for Carat parent Aegis, which is the only independent media buying network left.
One possible partner is Grey Global, which owns MediaCom. The two are mid-sized firms who could benefit by working closer together.
Another possible partner, however, unlikely it might sound is WPP. The two have a media joint venture in parts of Asia.
Aegis could be another partner. As well as Carat it has a fledging second string network Vizeum and a partnership between these two might make strategic sense.
A spokesman for Havas told the WSJ that the company "denies all knowledge of any specific proposal" and said that neither a part nor all of MPG was for sale.
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