YR purchases KnowledgeBase for $175 million

Advertising agency Young and Rubicam Inc (Y&R) of New York has acquired consumer list and database content and service firm KnowledgeBase of Chapel Hill, NC, for $175 million in cash and stock. Y&R will integrate the operations of KnowledgeBase with its direct response subsidiary Wunderman Cato Johnson. The ad agency also said that Knowledge will become the database marketing providers to its group of 10 advertising, marketing and communications companies, which generated a total of $1.52 billion in revenue in 1998.