Sony Pictures Television acquires majority stake in IMS Internet Media Services

Sony Pictures Television (SPT) has signed an agreement to acquire a majority stake in IMS Internet Media Services (IMS), one of Latin America’s largest ad sales and media buying firms in the digital space. The agreement was announced this week by Andy Kaplan, president of Worldwide Networks for SPT, and Gastón Taratuta, CEO, founder and partner for IMS. The deal is expected to close in several weeks pending regulatory approval. “Gastón and his team are experts in the digital space and they have created a fantastic business across Latin America. With the sector growing exponentially and evolving quickly, we’re looking forward to working together to grow our collective businesses. Additionally, we will integrate practices and intelligence with our networks and ad sales teams in the region and globally, making this an excellent extension of our current business,” said Kaplan.“SPT combines powerful programming with an international infrastructure and a leading leadership team. We look forward to the synergies these will bring to joint initiatives within Latin America and new regions,” noted Taratuta. Headquartered in Miami, the company also has offices in eleven countries throughout the region. Current commercial partnerships include Waze, Twitter, LinkedIn, Spotify, Crackle, iAds and Foursquare, among others. Taratuta will continue as CEO; Ignacio Vidaguren as COO; Maren Lau as CMO; and Mariano Román as CCO, and no significant changes to the business are currently planned.