WPP said Friday it has sold a 60% majority stake in Kantar to Bain Capital in a deal that values the company at around $4 billion. Read the release. The news marks the end of a months-long bidding process that involved Apollo Global Management and Vista Partners. Bloomberg reported earlier in July that Bain had […]
After two years of stock declines, WPP is finally inching toward progress. The holding company on Friday reported revenue was down 1.3% in 2018 to $2 billion and billings up 0.4% to $7.4 billion, at the upper end of guidance set in October. Shares jumped 8% upon the news. But work remains to be done […]
GroupM said Wednesday that Wavemaker global CEO Tim Castree has been named CEO of GroupM North America. Castree does not yet have a successor and will stay on in an advisory role at Wavemaker until a replacement is named. Castree’s big task will be to get GroupM back to growth in North America, its slowest […]
Even before WPP’s restructuring announcement Tuesday, the holding company had already merged digital agency VML with creative agency Young & Rubicam, and digital agency Wunderman with creative agency J. Walter Thompson. It’s still unclear what that means for GroupM’s four large media agencies. WPP CEO Mark Read didn’t comment directly about the media buying arm, […]
The new WPP, as CEO Mark Read called it during a Tuesday morning investor call in London, will return to organic growth by reducing headcount by about 2.5%, consolidating agencies and investing strategically in technology. WPP expects to deliver annual savings of $346 million by the end of 2021 thanks to this strategy. Restructuring costs […]
Something is wrong with WPP Group – or, perhaps, many somethings. On its Q3 call with investors Thursday, management detailed a list of ailments longer than that of a septuagenarian overdue for his physical. North America? “Further weakening.” Creative agencies? “Doing poorly.” Account losses? As bad as you’ve heard. Revenue was down .8%, and the […]
Wunderman global CEO Mel Edwards has big shoes to fill. Last Thursday, the CRM and digital agency said it would replace CEO Mark Read, recently named CEO of WPP, with Edwards, who previously led the agency in EMEA. Read is credited with turning Wunderman around from a legacy direct marketing company into a digital powerhouse. […]
A weekly comic strip from AdExchanger that highlights the digital advertising ecosystem…
The Big Story is a breezy new podcast featuring a roundtable of AdExchanger editors talking about the biggest stories from the past week. It is available wherever you subscribe to podcasts. WPP and Nike have some new spokespeople. While Mark Read’s appointment at WPP was expected and uncontroversial, Colin Kaepernick headlining Nike’s new campaign was […]
WPP may have a new CEO, but it still has the same old problems. During its Q2 earnings report Tuesday, the holding company posted its first quarter of growth in a year, with like-for-like revenues up 1.6% for the first half of 2018 and 2.4% for Q2 to $9.6 billion. But the company’s strongest region, […]
