WPP CEO Mark Read (and, no doubt, his dealmaking COO Andrew Scott) haven’t broken up for the Christmas holidays yet, they’ve just unloaded contentious data acquisition Triad Retail Media to Walmart-owned Sam’s Club. Last month it emerged that WPP, which ...
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 »Completion of Kantar sale marks a good(ish) year for WPP
WPP ends 2019 in rather better shape than it started the year, with the completion of its sale of 60 per cent of research operation Kantar to Bain Capital for about £2.4bn. £1.4bn of this is being retained to reduce ...
Read More »Read at WPP and Sadoun at Publicis chart diverging courses
“It is ironic that people think our industry is terrible when WPP are in it and a fantastic industry when Accenture are in it” WPP boss Mark Read (below) told a Morgan Stanley conference last month. The quote comes from ...
Read More »More strife at ever-changing Grey London as creative chairman Adrian Rossi quits
It goes from bad to worse at Grey London, not so along ago the creative jewel in WPP’s armoury of creative agencies along with its much bigger sibling Grey New York. Now Adrian Rossi (below with London CEO Anna Panczyk), ...
Read More »WPP re-affirms commitment to Ford and Detroit with new 1,000 strong campus
WPP is creating another campus to house its multifarious agencies, this time in Detroit, home to Ford which it still describes as its biggest client despite losing the creative slice of the business to BBDO and Wieden+Kennedy. The new campus ...
Read More »WPP contests cost of $300m Triad data acquisition
Running a big ad holding company must be rather like playing whack-a-mole, except for millions of dollars. Something troublesome keeps popping up just when you think it’s business as usual (if such a state still exists in such companies.) WPP ...
Read More »Sorrell in hot water over altercation with WPP’s Prior
Did he or didn’t he? S4Capital’s Sir Martin Sorrell clearly had a vigorous exchange of views with Jim Prior (below), boss of his old company WPP’s Superunion brand consultancy, at the recent Web Summit in Lisbon (Sorrell had promoted Prior ...
Read More »WPP wins big chunk of Axa media – Publicis retains creative
WPP’s Wavemaker media agency has scored a big and timely win with most of French insurance giant Axa’s global media account. Publicis has won the media business in Germany, the UK, Italy and Hong Kong. Publicis retains Axa’s creative. So ...
Read More »