London—Dentons has advised the shareholders of Essence, one of the fastest-growing media agencies and the largest independent buyer of online advertising, on its sale to WPP plc, the world's largest communications services group.

Essence manages more than US$700 million of media spend for clients, including Google, Hewlett-Packard, Viber and Tesco Mobile. Following WPP's acquisition of Essence, the company will remain independently focussed and operate within, and with access to the resources of, WPP's global media investment management unit, GroupM.

Dentons provided a full suite of legal services on the sale of Essence. Predominantly based on English law but also drawing on the Firms' global presence, particularly in the US. Essence are a long-standing client of the Firm and this acquisition follows four years of legal advice, including in respect of prior acquisitions, international expansion, intellectual property structuring and protection and contractual commercial advice.

Christian Juhl, CEO of Essence, comments that, "It's been great to have Dentons as part of the team, and to have their international counsel over the past four years. Their pragmatic and solution orientated advice, and relevant industry expertise, whether on M&A or commercial work, has been important in securing an exciting future for Essence."

The Dentons team was led by Corporate Partner Nigel Webber and Senior Associate Joseph Altendorff. Specialist legal and transactional support was provided by Suhail Qureshi and Amy O'Shea in London, Neil Capobianco and Julie-Ann Hyde in New York.

GP Bullhound and AdMedia Partners acted as joint financial advisers and Deloitte provided tax advice.

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