Global ad agency WPP, which paid almost $650 million for 24/7 Real Media last year, will be bringing together all its search agencies under the Outrider brand and under the GroupM media division. That includes the search group at 24/7, Catalyst, Quisma, and Outrider, which won Yahoo’s Searchlight Award in New York last night for its Smirnoff campaign.

This consolidation creates a global search agency with offices on multiple continents.

Related Topics: SEM Industry: Acquisitions | SEM Industry: Awards | SEM Industry: General

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling