South Korea-based marcoms company Cheil Worldwide has bought a stake in global integrated agency Iris, with an option to move to full ownership over the next five years. Cheil, which began life in 1973 as Samsung’s in-house agency, employs over ...
Read More »Matt Williams: The Engine Group deal – what employees really want from an acquisition
So we’re done and dusted. The Engine acquisition, I mean. Chances are you’ll have read about it over the past couple of weeks. And of course it’s taken a little longer – and generated a few more headlines – than ...
Read More »The clock is ticking on a bid by WPP for Interpublic
Is WPP planning to buy Interpublic? Oh yes it is, say numerous analysts and hacks; oh no we’re not, says WPP, in a series of seemingly firm denials that leave plenty of wriggle room for Sir Martin Sorrell (left) and ...
Read More »Twitter raises the ad stakes with Facebook and Google by buying mobile ad company MoPub
Twitter is proving a surprisingly strong competitor in the social media ad world and it’s improved its position somewhat by agreeing to buy mobile advertising company MoPub for an estimated $300m plus in Twitter shares. Twitter is expected to seek ...
Read More »Post-Nokia Microsoft is in the last chance saloon – it needs a brilliant agency and even more brilliant ads
Much scratching of heads about Microsoft’s decision to fork out $7.2bn for Nokia’s phones business – it’s an obvious thing to do but they had that business already as the only profitable phone that Nokia is selling is the new ...
Read More »Michael Roth’s Interpublic finds itself back on the takeover menu – the a la carte version
Then there were three? There are four big marcoms holding companies (if you exclude Dentsu which is still 90 per cent Japan as it waits for clearance from China to buy Aegis): WPP, Omnicom, Publicis Groupe and interpublic (IPG). Late ...
Read More »Is a takeover bid looming for ITV?
Media takeovers are all the rage at the moment – the latest being Liberty Global’s $20bn deal for Virgin Media – and the boys in dark glasses who still inhabit the undergrowth of the City of London financial district are ...
Read More »