Sports marketing division Mediapro, in which WPP owns a 20% stake, is working with Hellman & Friedman on the bid, the Daily Telegraph reported today. The companies could mount a joint bid for Sportfive of between €800m (£535m) and €1bn, the newspaper says.
Hellman & Friedman has worked with WPP in the past, most recently on its bid for the Aegis Group in 2005, which ended without a deal being done.
Sportfive markets the rights to sports events. Its clients include: Uefa, for which it is managing Euro 2008; the Football Association, where it sells rights to the England team's friendly matches; and clubs including Paris St Germain, FC Kopenhagen and Galatasaray.
It put itself up for sale earlier in the year. There has been plenty of interest in the company from investors. However, reports say that one of Sportfive's big clients, the vice-chairman of the French Football Federation, has said the company will lose rights to their matches if it is sold to private investors.
The deal would be a further move away from WPP's base activities of traditional marketing, advertising and media buying.
In September, it teamed up with Universal Music for a joint venture called BrandAmp. It will look at developing partnerships between WPP's clients and Universal's artists.
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