It hasn’t taken long for Bain Capital – the new owner of 60 per cent of WPP’s research business Kantar – to flex its muscles. CEO Eric Salama (below), who stayed on after the Bain deal with WPP (WPP still ...
Read More »Long-serving Kantar boss Eric Salama steps down following WPP sale to Bain
Eric Salama, long-time CEO of WPP’s Kantar research operation which is now 60 per cent owned by Bain Capital, is stepping down after 17 years. The sale to Bain completed last week. WPP keeps the balance. Salama (below) is staying ...
Read More »WPP reels in £2.5bn with 60 per cent Kantar sale to Bain
WPP CEO Mark Read has done his best deal yet, agreeing to sell 60 per cent of research operation Kantar to Bain Capital for £2.5bn, valuing the whole of Kantar at £3.2bn. £1.5bn will go towards reducing WPP’s debt with ...
Read More »WPP set to kick off Kantar auction
WPP’s auction of some or all of research arm Kantar kicks off in April with Goldman Sachs in the auctioneer’s chair, according to Reuters. Bankers are lining up to to £2.5bn of debt finance for some lucky buyer. Kantar has ...
Read More »WPP’s Kantar ditches sub-brands in drive for client-friendly (and buyer) simplicity
Retirement is a comfy option for some but not, perhaps, if you’re a brand. WPP’s big research operation Kantar has announced it’s going to retire all its multifarious sub-brands – including some famous names like Kantar Millward Brown and Kantar ...
Read More »WPP’s Kantar is for sale – could Sorrell be a buyer?
Might Sir Martin Sorrell (below), now installed as chairman of S4 Capital, the owner of content agency MediaMonks, be contemplating a bid for some or all of Kantar? Kantar, of course, is the data division of WPP, the company he ...
Read More »WPP slows some payments in crucial fourth quarter
A report in UK newspaper City AM claims that WPP, where growth has dried up this year, is deliberately delaying payments to creditors at its vast Kantar research subsidiary. An email purportedly reads: “Cash balances are one of the most ...
Read More »WPP gains a foothold in Iran with Kantar research tie-up
Wherever there’s business to do be done there’s WPP. A few years ago it got into hot water by opening up in Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe and it was the first of the networks to go into Cuba (or should that ...
Read More »Millward Brown hires Ainsworth as new UK boss
Millward Brown, WPP-owned Kantar’s global brand research consultancy, has appointed Louise Ainsworth (left) as its new UK CEO. Ainsworth joins from advertising and media data company WARC where she has been CEO since 2012. Prior to WARC Ainsworth was senior ...
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