Worldpanel, the data arm of market research giant Kantar, could be up for sale according to reports.
Sky News reported over the weekend that Kantar’s owners Bain Capital and WPP Group are tossing up selling the business, with prices set to start at around £5 billion (more than AU$10 billion).
Sky said the move has been not yet been approved by either Bain or WPP but would leave Kantar as a pureplay market research business.
Meanwhile, the Financial Times, said Bain and WPP had previously been weighing up an IPO for the remaining business of Kantar, but they were now seeking to sell its major divisions.
In January, Kantar sold its television audience rating unit to buyout fund H.I.G Capital for around US$1 billion (AU$.158 billion).
Kantar had acquired Chicago-based data company Numerator in 2021, and merged it with the Worldpanel division in January 2025.
WPP has had a tough time of it recently. Following the release of its 2024 preliminary financial results, its share price tumbled nearly 20 per cent. It has forecast a 1 per cent drop in organic revenue, missing analyst forecasts of a 0.4 per cent drop.
While WPP did grow 1.4 per cent in Western Continental Europe, it suffered a 1.4 per cent decline in North America, 5.1 per cent in the UK, 4.8 per cent in the Rest of the World, including a significant 21.2 per cent drop in China.
