Digital ad shop is sold

It's L.A.-based Schematic, which is hired by media companies and advertisers to handle all kinds of interactive assignments. WPP, the giant British advertising conglomerate, is the buyer (details of the all-cash deal not disclosed, but the company generated $30 million in revenues last year). Several suitors were apparently in the picture, but WPP was chosen because under the deal Schematic will remain a stand-alone unit. Also, senior management gets a five-year earn-out, which could mean a bunch of money if the company does better than expected. From the NYT:

The agency works for advertisers and media companies like Coca-Cola, Condé Nast Publications, Walt Disney, NBC Universal, Target and Time Warner. For instance, for Vogue magazine, published by Condé Nast, Schematic helped design a broadband channel (shopvogue.tv), which offers computer users video clips of fashion shows, information about fashion and a chance to buy the products appearing in the ad pages of the print edition of Vogue.