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Twitter’s revenue problem is bigger than Covid-19

24 Mar 2020

Users of the social network are flocking but advertisers are bailing as coronavirus content proliferates. But for revenue, it’s the ads that matter most. Twitter may hope to turn its new users into advertising dollars, but being widely read doesn’t guarantee being profitable.

Corona Capital: Religious aid, Ad-spending slump

23 Mar 2020

Concise views on the pandemic’s corporate and financial fallout: U.S. Vice President Mike Pence wants Americans to donate to religious institutions to bolster community aid. But churches have their own fiscal problems. Plus: TV ad revenue look set for a pounding.

YouTube makes itself a needless political football

21 Feb 2020

President Trump has bought prominent ads on the video platform on Election Day. That’s because YouTube has enormous reach. Yet, parent Alphabet is in regulators’ crosshairs and campaign money is a tiny slice of revenue. It’s a wonder why it accepts political ads at all.

Twitter’s advertising model gets ratioed

24 Oct 2019

The social network’s shares crashed nearly 20% after it revealed unexpectedly slow summer sales and a slew of issues of its own making such as bugs that hampered targeting ads and sharing data. Fall may be better for ads, but it’s fair to question Twitter’s ability to fix itself.

Google could buff its browser-privacy blemishes

11 Oct 2019

Chrome’s owner lags both Mozilla’s Firefox and Apple’s Safari in trying to make the web less creepy. The prospect of losing revenue may explain Google’s resistance to blocking certain ad trackers. If more users abandon the web’s most popular browser, Google is likely to act.

Publicis turnaround even tougher than it looked

11 Oct 2019

The French group’s shares dropped 12% after its second revenue warning in three months. Traditional advertising is shrinking faster than new consulting-style services can grow. CEO Arthur Sadoun admits the outlook for 2020 is fuzzy. That shows in Publicis’ discounted valuation.

WPP’s turnaround pitch ceases to be brand-dilutive

9 Aug 2019

The $15 bln ad group is still shrinking, but CEO Mark Read has slowed the decline and seemingly ended its habit of repeated profit warnings. Having cut debt and trimmed founder Martin Sorrell’s sprawling empire, Read’s next job is to win some big accounts in the key U.S. market.

Publicis merits bottom place in advertising pile

19 Jul 2019

The French group lost 850 mln euros of market value after disappointing sales forced CEO Arthur Sadoun to scale back 2019 revenue ambitions. Overpriced M&A and broken promises on growth explain why the advertising group’s valuation is lower than peers – even troubled rival WPP.

Publicis’ biggest buy distracts from deeper issues

15 Apr 2019

Chief Executive Arthur Sadoun is spending $4.4 bln on Alliance Data Systems’ Epsilon digital marketing unit. It’s a bold bet on more targeted advertising, but does little to help the French group hit next year’s 4 pct organic revenue growth target, or lure back lost clients.

Publicis’ $5 bln deal would push data fad to limit

1 Apr 2019

The French group may buy Alliance Data’s digital-marketing unit. The mooted price tag is manageable given Publicis’ pristine balance sheet. But the low returns on offer suggest that CEO Arthur Sadoun is worried about keeping up with data-rich ad rivals and tech giants.

WPP would win most from $5 bln data-business sale

19 Mar 2019

Buyout groups Advent and Blackstone are circling the ad group’s market-research unit Kantar, Reuters reported. Private-equity buyers could hike margins and combine it with a rival. WPP’s wad of cash and retained access to its consumers’ data sounds more enticing, though.

Facebook’s presidential foes are also customers

14 Mar 2019

Silicon Valley has become a political punching bag for Elizabeth Warren and other 2020 contenders. But their campaigns are big users of Facebook and other online platforms. It reflects the power of tech giants, and suggests that bashing them may not persuade voters.

WPP’s dysfunction discount is now too slim

1 Mar 2019

The 12 bln pound ad group’s results were hardly enough to merit a 7 percent rise in its shares. WPP’s miserable forecasts mean it merits a wide discount to French rival Publicis, which has better growth prospects. Investors are cutting new CEO Mark Read a lot of slack.

Three digital ad giants are no better than two

20 Feb 2019

Google and Facebook’s combined share of U.S. online advertising is poised to fall for the first time this year. The reason: Amazon is taking a bite out of their slice. Even a muscular challenger does little to reduce the case for tighter regulation.

Ad groups’ growth spin is a marketing flop

7 Feb 2019

Publicis shares fell 11 pct after a bad fourth quarter. Along with peers like WPP, the French group is priced at a hefty discount to other media companies despite its promise to boost sales. The relentless shift of advertising spending to tech giants means scepticism is deserved.

German $5 bln listings group is poor LBO advert

14 Dec 2018

Scout24, which hosts online ads for homes and cars, ticks two boxes for possible private equity suitors: it’s cheaper than peers and has lower margins. But a buyer like Silver Lake would struggle to load much more debt on the firm. Looming regulation is another threat to returns.

Google finds Congress still searching for a clue

11 Dec 2018

U.S. lawmakers who grilled company chief Sundar Pichai failed to land a blow, and showed themselves ill informed about what the search engine actually does. The knowledge gap is risky for tech firms, because it increases the risk of regulation that misses the mark.

WPP’s new investor pitch contains too much hot air

11 Dec 2018

CEO Mark Read wants to slash costs and get the $13 bln ad group growing in line with rivals by the end of 2021. That’s the right idea. But his growth plan looks heavier on jargon than detail, while cuts are modest. Overall it’s less convincing than one of WPP’s whizzy campaigns.

WPP’s broken financial model is hard to fix

25 Oct 2018

The ad group’s old strategy of modest growth supplemented by M&A and share buybacks no longer works. New CEO Mark Read faces shrinking sales and a big debt pile. Given how long it will take to streamline the business and invest in new technologies, investors will be unforgiving.