WPP Invests in Fullscreen, a ‘Buddy Media for YouTube’
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WPP may have found its next Buddy Media. The holding company’s stake in the social marketing company earned WPP $62 million after selling to Salesforce last year. Now its digital investment arm WPP Digital has taken a stake in digital video network Fullscreen, whose CEO and founder George Strompolos described it as “one part a new media company with a massive creator network but also essentially Buddy Media for YouTube.”
Former News Corp. president and COO Peter Chernin’s The Chernin Group led Fullscreen’s funding round — adding to the group’s early 2012 seed-stage investment — and was joined by WPP Digital and Comcast Ventures, the investment arms of their parent companies.
Mr. Strompolos declined to disclose specifically how much funding Fullscreen has taken on with this round, but people familiar with the matter said it was in the ballpark of $30 million. All Things D had reported in April that Fullscreen was closing a $30 million round but only named The Chernin Group and Comcast Ventures as investors, suggesting that WPP’s stake is relatively small and in line holding companies’ typical minor strategic investments like the $5 million put into Buddy Media. WPP had previously invested in addressable TV advertising company Invidi and TV ad analytics firm Ace Metrix.
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