Advertising

Google fans flames of wireless price war

22 Jan 2015

The search giant plans to sell relabeled service from Sprint and T-Mobile US. This virtual carrier is a cheap way to intensify the battle for customers raging between these two, AT&T and Verizon. Consumers should benefit – Google, too, if it can avoid getting burned.

WPP chair should be vertical as well as horizontal

17 Dec 2014

Martin Sorrell says the ad group’s Chairman-designate Roberto Quarta will help its “horizontality.” The word also sums up the partnership aspect of good CEO-chair relations. But given the WPP CEO’s run-ins with investors, Quarta will want to be a degree higher, not on a level.

Publicis better show it has a cure for "hiccup"

23 Oct 2014

The French advertising group says focus on the failed merger with Omnicom explains its weak performance in the last quarter. It also has excuses for different parts of the business. The pressure is on to show at its next strategy update how it intends to shake its growth problem.

Bolloré corners Havas

20 Oct 2014

The French billionaire’s eponymous media group is offering a share swap for the Havas stock it doesn’t own. Havas owners can either take advantage of the small premium, or wait to see whether the advertiser comes into play – a risky bet.

Facebook’s unintentional success speaks for itself

24 Jul 2014

Founder Mark Zuckerberg says he set out on a social mission not to create a company, which may explain his understated response to impressive Q2 results. Some $190 bln of market value later, though, it’s clear the social network’s importance lies squarely in the commercial realm.

Publicis advertises its standalone weakness

22 Jul 2014

The ad giant’s first results since a merger with Omnicom collapsed were unexpectedly poor. Publicis shares tumbled. Claims the deal was about “opportunity, not necessity” ring increasingly hollow. Pressure to find a successor for CEO Chairman Maurice Levy is rising. 

Deal failure intensifies Publicis’ succession woes

9 May 2014

The end of the merger between the French advertising company and its U.S. rival Omnicom leaves Publicis without a plan for replacing 72-year-old CEO Maurice Levy. That is a long-standing issue that the board repeatedly failed to address. It has just taken on a new urgency. 

Big Ad merger sorely misjudged its audience

9 May 2014

The failed $35 bln tie-up of Publicis and Omnicom was a triumph of financial logic that failed to account for  human behaviour. Merging two rivals of near-identical size looked elegant on paper. But that doesn’t mean much if clients, employees and regulators don’t buy the concept.

Deutsche Telekom doubly lucky with online ad sale

21 Nov 2013

The German telco is selling most of its Scout24 unit to Hellman & Friedman. A 2 bln euro enterprise value is a hefty 20 times EBITDA, though the buyer has ways to mitigate this. DT is fortunate that private equity firms are hungry for carve-outs - and property portals so hot.

Twitter hopes for an Instagram moment

10 Sep 2013

Facebook leaned on a chunky acquisition of the picture-sharing app to prove its mobile chops, just as Marissa Mayer did with Tumblr to restore Yahoo’s image. Buying ad seller MoPub is Twitter’s biggest deal and may have the same uplifting effect as investors await an IPO.

Boutiques, bulge bracket hit the other’s weak spot

2 Aug 2013

Moelis and Rothschild scooped the big bragging rights to this week’s $35 bln Publicis-Omnicom deal. But BofA, Morgan Stanley and others can at least feast on the bigger payday financing the $2.5 bln Saks takeover. That’s money the boutiques are leaving on the table – for now.

Mad Men bring the negative campaign to M&A

2 Aug 2013

WPP boss Martin Sorrell says Publicis-Omnicom is a lopsided merger that will lose staff and clients. Publicis’ CEO deplores “anxious” rivals. The unusual public sniping is entertaining. But as in advertising, that’s not really the point. Both sides have something to sell.

WPP can sit out this bout of adland M&A

29 Jul 2013

A merged Publicis Omnicom would overtake the UK group as the largest advertiser. That must gall WPP boss Martin Sorrell. But he could poach clients, and charge more in a consolidated market. The benefits of gatecrashing this deal, or finding a consolation prize, look dubious.

"Equality" in Big Ad merger may be hard to sustain

29 Jul 2013

Publicis and Omnicom have formed a neat merger of equals, with co-CEOs, a balanced board, parallel listings and head offices. As a combination of autonomous units, no single culture can dominate. Day one will be fine. There is still a risk that paralysis or conflict comes later.

Ad men’s $35 bln bet: size matters in digital age

28 Jul 2013

Publicis and Omnicom are merging to create the world’s largest advertising group. Cost savings look modest. Some clients could defect. But this is a way to adapt to the digital revolution: the Franco-U.S. duo will be better equipped to stand up to giants like Facebook and Google.

Mobile advertising will boom in 2013

18 Dec 2012

Internet firms moaned for years that users were spending lots of hours on the Web, but marketing dollars weren’t following from print and TV. Time and the growth of broadband have closed this gap. The boom in smartphones now provides similar fuel for mobile advertising.

Share price mystery clouds Focus Media buyout

15 Aug 2012

The Chinese media group’s U.S. shares ran up 8 percent the day before it announced a $3.5 billion management buyout. Regulators are already twitchy after alleged insider trading around CNOOC’s $15 billion bid for Nexen. This may fuel fears that China has a problem with insiders.

Aegis finds a Japanese sugar daddy – finally

12 Jul 2012

The UK media buyer and major shareholder Vincent Bollore have accepted a 3.2 bln stg cash bid from Japan’s Dentsu. It’s a happy ending for the perennial takeover target. But given negligible cost savings, the 45 pct premium is chunky. To stack up, execution must be near-perfect.

Will Microsoft learn through self-flagellation?

3 Jul 2012

The software giant squandered shareholder treasure for years to break into internet services, gaming and consumer electronics. Writing down the $6 bln it blew on aQuantive should mark a turning point where Microsoft at long last returns to its knitting and focuses on enterprise.

Google rejoins tech’s governance race to bottom

12 Apr 2012

Zynga and Facebook show little regard for common shareholders. Google is copying its rivals’ shenanigans by adding a third class of non-voting shares eight years after leading the dual-stock charge. That’ll entrench insiders and enable the future abuse of minority shareholders.