Vice Media, a Canada-based media group, has taken on an undisclosed amount for selling a minority of its equity to a consortium including UK-listed advertising agency WPP.
The other investors are Tom Freston, music channel MTV’s co-founder and former chief executive of Viacom that also took a minority stake in Vice, and Raine Group, a boutique merchant bank focused exclusively on entertainment, digital media and sports founded in 2009 in partnership with talent agency WME Entertainment.
Vice has also enlisted WME Entertainment to represent the company.
Freston, WPP and Raine Group will have seats on Vice’s board.
Sir Martin Sorrell, chief executive of WPP, said: "WPP is investing in Vice to further develop our content capabilities, particularly in new media and among the youth consumer segments. Vice has been extremely successful in developing and repositioning major brands in these areas. It’s also an opportunity to work closely with Tom Freston and Ari Emanuel and his WME talent agency."
Vice will use the new resources and relationships to expand globally, focusing on emerging markets such as Brazil, China, India and South Korea. It is also building a network of international studios and creative facilities to produce and distribute content from directors, writers, artists and musicians as well as expand its news and sports divisions.
Additionally, Vice will start digital channels and verticals with large brands following the launch of Virtue to deal with corporate contract publishing.
Vice Media’s unaudited gross assets for last year were $34.3m, according to news provider New York Times.
Separately, advertising group Interpublic Group (IPG) owns a stake in social media platform Facebook that could be valued at about $200m to $300m, news provider Financial Times said. The exact size of the stake has not been disclosed, but IPG owns slightly less than 0.5% of Facebook, the FT said, having paid less than $5m for it.
In June 2006, blog Inside Facebook said IPG provided $10m of advertising for a stake that valued Facebook at $2bn.