The business model for giant ad agencies is under fire — but IPG says its $2.3 billion bet on Acxiom gives it a massive advantage over other firms :

Last week, Interpublic Group - a holding company that controls ad agencies like R/GA, IPG Mediabrands, and Deutsch - made a pricey wager on the power of consumer data when it announced plans to acquire Acxiom's data-marketing division, Acxiom Marketing Solutions, for $2.3 billion. Arun Kumar, the chief data and technology officer at IPG Mediabrands, will oversee Acxiom's integration with the holding company into a standalone business. Business Insider talked to Kumar about the Acxiom deal, what it means for new data and privacy regulations like Europe's General Data Protection Regulation, and what an acquisition means for other holding companies. Kumar: A significantly large part of the Acxiom business is direct with clients, and we were actually one of the bigger agency partners that they had - the revenue coming in from other agency holding groups is quite minimal.

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