WPP is reportedly planning a sale of Burson, what’s left of its rambling array of PR businesses. Burson is an amalgam of BCW (Burson plus Cohn & Wolfe) and Hill & Knowlton, once the biggest in the UK.
In 2024 WPP sold a majority stake in FGS Global, its other big PR business, to private equity firm KKR which valued the financial-based firm at £1.3bn. Goldman Sach is lined up to handle any new sale.
PR let the side down in WPP’s latest accounts, revenue falling 6%. The business has changed dramatically with the rise of platforms like TikTok and Instagram and multifarious influencers taking away slices of budget. No-one yet has put a price on BCW.
WPP founder and former boss Sir Martin Sorrell recently observed that PR had become rather a waste of time as a separate discipline, instead it should be seen as an aspect of advertising. WPP’s Ogilvy does, indeed, have a big PR operation. Whatever BCW makes, WPP must be hoping that any sale process reduces its debt, still hovering around the £3bn mark. Its current market value is “just” £2.69bn.
