By Stuart Smith on June 1, 2012
Tim Bell’s getaway plane has received permission to take off from the control tower and is now taxiing down the runaway. But will it actually manage lift off, or be bought back to earth with a pancake landing? Sadly, we’ll only know the answer on June 18th, date of the next gripping episode of this [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, Media, News, PR | Tagged Bell Pottinger, buyout, chime, june 18 agm, Lord Bell, Piers Pottinger, Tim Bell
By Staff on May 31, 2012
One of the oddest deals of the year has come to fruition with confirmation that Lord Bell (left), chairman of Chime Communications, the UK marcoms company he founded in 1989, has secured board approval to buy the various Bell Pottinger PR businesses for about £20m. Chime will retain a quarter stake in the new company, [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, News, PR | Tagged Bell Pottinger, chime, Lord Bell, Sir Martin Sorrell, WPP
By Stephen Foster on May 29, 2012
WPP is to buy a majority stake in French digital data and campaign technology marketing group Predictys. Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Grenoble, Predictys has a co-operative database which includes information from 140m opted-in consumers sourced from about 25 partners. Most of its clients are affiliation networks that use it as a third-party provider [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Finance, News, PR, Research | Tagged adam & eve, agm, chime communications, comparethemarket, coors, data, ddb london, easyJet, france, grenoble, grey, Hugh Baillie, JWT, kantar, kbm, Lord Bell, ogilvy, omnicom, pay package, Piers Pottinger, predictys, rkcr/y&r, Sir Martin Sorrell, vccp, WPP
By Angie Dean on May 18, 2012
Here’s some intriguing intelligence from the London Evening Standard’s City Diarist. The Channel 4 press office has just leaked to me details of the next Celebrity Come Dine With Me. I can’t wait. You must know the programme. Four or five people who live in the same town take it in turns each night of [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, Media, News, PR | Tagged buyout plans, celebrity come dine with me, Channel 4, chime communications, city diary, london evening standard, Lord Bell, Lord Chadlington, Piers Pottinger, saatchi & saatchi, Sir Martin Sorrell
By Stephen Foster on May 9, 2012
It has indeed been a busy old day at Chime Communications’ AGM as chairman Lord Bell says the board has agreed his plan to buy out the Bell Pottinger PR businesses (it’s not clear if the two WPP board directors voted for or against) at the same time as he issued a profit warning, citing [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Finance, News, PR | Tagged advertising, agency pitch, Bell Pottinger, chime communications, easygroup, easyJet, golden goal, Lord Bell, Piers Pottinger, pr agencies, profit warning, Richard Shackleton, Simon Gulliford, sports marketing, Stelios, vccp
By Stephen Foster on May 9, 2012
Lord Bell’s London-based marcoms group Chime Communications is taking a big bet on sports marketing and has just announced an agreement to buy 60 per cent of Brazil’s Golden Goal for an initial £2.4m. With earnouts in 2014 and 2017 the deal could be worth a maximum £9.5m to Golden Goal founders and shareholders Cadu [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Finance, News, PR | Tagged agm, Bell Pottinger, boyout plans, brazil, Cadu Ferreira, chime communications, chime sports marketing, easyjet pitch, essentially, fast track, golden goal, Lord Bell, Mauro Correa, olympics, Piers Pottinger, PR, Simon Gulliford, sports marketing, world cup
By Stephen Foster on May 3, 2012
Lord Bell’s Chime Comunications marcoms company has endured a torrid few months with various shareholders, including 20 per cent holder WPP, opposing his lordship’s plan to buy out the Bell Pottinger PR business and rumblings of discontent over the company’s decision to buy Simon Gulliford’s marketing consultancy for the best part of £2m. These matters [...]
Posted in Agencies, Clients, Creative, Finance, News, PR | Tagged agm, buyout plans, consultancy deal, easyJet, Lord Bell, mulller, Piers Pottinger, Simon Gulliford, tbwa, us department of defense, vccp, WPP, wunderful stuff
By Stuart Smith on April 15, 2012
For those who – like me – have been following the buyout shenanigans at Chime with some bemusement, the following item from Bob Willott’s Marketing Services Financial Intelligence will be of more than passing interest: Chime Communications confirmed yesterday evening [Friday last] that long-term shareholder WPP has continued its recent buying of shares so that [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, News, PR | Tagged Bell Pottinger, Bob Willott, buy-out plan, chime comminications, increased shareholding, Lord Bell, marketing services financial intelligence, Piers Pottinger, Sir Martin Sorrell, Stuart Smith, WPP
By Staff on March 30, 2012
WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell isn’t a fan of Lord Bell (pictured) and Piers Pottinger’s plan to buy out the Bell Pottinger PR business from Chime Communications, the PR-based marcoms business Bell chairs. Sorrell has described the plan thus: “It isn’t logical and if you start to dismember the management of it, where does that end?” [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, News, PR | Tagged advertising, Bell Pottinger, chime communications, increased share stake, Lord Bell, Piers Pottinger, PR, Sir Martin Sorrell, sports marketing companies, us government accounts, vccp, WPP
By Stuart Smith on March 8, 2012
Summing up a satisfactory set of annual results, which had seen Chime pre-tax-profits climb 16 per cent, chairman Lord Bell (pictured) concluded: “The group is well positioned for the future with a very positive year ahead for sports marketing in particular.” But not with me on board, he might have added sotto voce, and not [...]
Posted in Agencies, Finance, News, PR | Tagged Bell Pottinger, chime communications, fidelity, jp morgan, Lord Bell, management buyout, olympics, Piers Pottinger, Sir Martin Sorrell, sports marketing, Stuart Smith, us pr contract, world cup, WPP
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