S4 Capital and MSQ explore surprise tie-up
Everybody’s looking for deals among the embattled ad holding companies – WPP is top of the list – but out of left field comes a “combination” between Sir Martin Sorrell’s S4 Capital and Peter Reid’s MSQ.
S4 has hit the buffers, now valued at just £140m after once reaching nearly £4bn, as its target tech company clients seem to have decided they can do it themselves, assisted by AI. MSQ has built a biggish international business – nine leading agencies and 850 employees – but has still to land a really big deal. It bought the US’s Big Spaceship creative agency as it was in the process of losing Starbuck’s, which looked like an own goal, and has failed to grow substantially in media despite forming Walk-In Media.
S4 says MSQ owner One Equity Partners has approached it about some kind of deal which would be structured as an S4 acquisition. S4 is listed in London. MSQ, which seems to have been taken by surprise, has not so far commented.
Medium-sized marcoms companies can be expected to huddle together for warmth in a nightmarish spending climate. S4 boss Sorrell (left), who founded WPP, is 80. The company may see Reid, a former McKinsey consultant and seemingly an accomplished dealmaker, as a suitable successor.