Aegis Group

Carat is Europe's largest full service media specialist, and the #4 media specialist worldwide. According RECMA, billings were $18.6bn in 2004. The agency's parent is independent media services group Aegis, ranked by Advertising Age as the #7 ad organisation worldwide in 2004 with revenues of $1.4bn. Although Carat remains its best-known brand the group has devoted much of its time recently to the creation of affiliated global networks, such as market research group Synovate, secondary media network Vizeum and interactive brand Isobar. In Autumn 2005, Aegis became the focus of acquisition talks, with rival bidders including Havas, Publicis and WPP Source: [1]